Should football look to take timekeeping out of the hands of the referee?

Yes from me.

In my lifetime they have added a fourth official, tried two extra assistants behind goals, goal-line technology, and now VAR. It is obvious when the referees responsibilities keep getting reduced that they are just not good enough to properly manage a match, so might as well bring in a dedicated timekeeper to do that part.
 
With the exception of serious injuries, the added on time from referees is just plucked out the air.
Three or four minutes is the norm.
So you could be right, a timekeeper might possibly help.
 
AndythephotoDr said:
Thought this would make for decent discussion.

Should we take the responsibility of time keeping out of the hands of the referee?

With all the time wasting that went on with the ball boys and the ball in the crowd would it be an idea to have a time keeper who stopped the clock when the ball isn’t in play. Stop the clock when making substitutes etc and ensure that the 90mins are played on the pitch. You would be able to see the clock in the stadium and you would know a definite end time which may help increase the tension and drama a bit as it counts down to final whistle

Would make time wasting pointless and needlessly long physio breaks
Click to expand...
Yes.
 
AndythephotoDr said:
Thought this would make for decent discussion.

Should we take the responsibility of time keeping out of the hands of the referee?

With all the time wasting that went on with the ball boys and the ball in the crowd would it be an idea to have a time keeper who stopped the clock when the ball isn’t in play. Stop the clock when making substitutes etc and ensure that the 90mins are played on the pitch. You would be able to see the clock in the stadium and you would know a definite end time which may help increase the tension and drama a bit as it counts down to final whistle

Would make time wasting pointless and needlessly long physio breaks
Click to expand...
yes, have an official timekeeper in the stand.
ball goes out of play - clock stops.
any time the ball is dead- lining up a free kick, bye kick etc, clock is stopped until the ball is hit.
games might last a little longer but at least we would have an actual 90 mins of football action
 
AndythephotoDr said:
Thought this would make for decent discussion.

Should we take the responsibility of time keeping out of the hands of the referee?

With all the time wasting that went on with the ball boys and the ball in the crowd would it be an idea to have a time keeper who stopped the clock when the ball isn’t in play. Stop the clock when making substitutes etc and ensure that the 90mins are played on the pitch. You would be able to see the clock in the stadium and you would know a definite end time which may help increase the tension and drama a bit as it counts down to final whistle

Would make time wasting pointless and needlessly long physio breaks
Click to expand...
There's also the problem of how to stop teams disrupting the flow of the game deliberately, but dealing with the timekeeping issue would be a great first step.

Has to be a worldwide or Europe wide initiative as the rules need to be the same across all senior competitions.

Would lead to a lot more actual playing time and the knock on effects would be that I expect the teams with bigger, better, fitter squads and players would be less likely to lose. So in the short term in Scotland it could lead to Rangers and celtic pulling further away from the pack with less surprise results. This obviously takes us in the wrong direction where we need to find ways to give the smaller teams a better chance and make the league more competitive, however there will be better ways of doing this than allowing teams to play as little football as possible during a football match.
 
I like the way they do it in rugby in that the clock strikes on the 80mins but if the ball is still in play it carries on till it goes dead.i think it adds to the levels of drama if it’s a close game
 
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