Former referee Collina on effective time and possible changes in rules

The effective time has been a hot topic in the last few years and some want the extra-time calculation to be revised. They are not pleased with stop-start matches that only have 50 minutes of effective time. This term refers to the actual time the ball was in play, not including stops for injuries, celebrations and line-up set pieces.

Pierluigi Collina

talked about the matter to Calciatori Brutti and is calling on changes to be done.

“I am part of a body called the International Football Association Board, IFAB, which is the one that oversees the rules. One of the things we are talking about is whether it is not worthwhile for all matches to have the same duration.

“If you look at the statistics today you see that there are teams that play 52 minutes, others that play 43 minutes and others that play 58 minutes. If you add up all these times in a league the difference becomes big.

“Another thing to think about is: I as a spectator pay a ticket, physically at the stadium, or at home on PPV, to see 90 minutes of football but I see 44, 45, 46 played. Half the price of my ticket goes into unplayed time. Most of the wasted time comes with throw-ins or goal kicks.

“These things are functional to the game, but eight to nine minutes for throw-ins, eight to nine minutes for goal-kicks… Precisely to overcome the unspectacular nature of certain things in a match a few years ago, the goalkeeper was prevented from picking up the ball passed voluntarily by a teammate.

“How spectacular is it to see a goalkeeper with a ball in his hand? The initial reaction is ‘football will never be the same again’. Today, however, it is obvious that it is much more fun. So we are doing some thinking.

“Today, what is accepted as good actual playing time is around an hour, around 60 minutes. That’s the dividing line between games that last a bit shorter and others that last as long as 66-67-68 minutes. It also depends on the players.

“We, as referees, as FIFA, also for the next World Cup, we will give the indication to be careful to recover lost time, which are not dives but goals. If three goals are scored in one half, the average celebration is one and a half minutes each, that’s five minutes of celebration, which nobody remembers, but it’s five minutes less played.

“If we’re going to be a bit more precise we’ll have to prepare ourselves for a nine-minute injury time, today nine minutes is eye-popping, but give those who want to see a spectacle the chance to see a bit more.”

There is a great possibility that rules and changes will arrive to address the matter; however, the nature of the changes are yet to be known. There have been many proposals, like pausing the clock when the ball is not in play.

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