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Time for FIFA to take rugby's lead in dealing with time wasting?


ditty

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Like probably everyone who watched the Canada-St. Lucia game, the time wasting in the 2nd half was more than I could stomach. I seriously could barely finish watching the match. I honestly could imagine being someone who brought a soccer newb to BMO for the match and had to experience their friend's reaction to said time wasting. No doubt the reaction went through the following stages:

1. Shock that a player could feign injury, be stretchered off, immediately jump on his feet and return to action.

2. Humour that this actually was indeed happening over and over ("Get out the stretcher!")

3. A feeling of wanting to detach from an event and sport that actually condoned this action.

And make no mistake, FIFA is condoning this type of behaviour by choosing not to deal with it. Now, I know virtually nothing about rugby but a friend in South Africa was once telling me about his 10 year old son getting his bell rung trying to make a tackle in a rugby match. The kid was distraught at having to leave the field of play because that meant he couldn't return for the rest of the half. My friend clarified that if a rugby player has to leave the field because of an injury, other than to stop bleeding, he or she can't re-enter for the rest of the half.

This got me thinking about what soccer could do. Injury faking/time wasting is seriously THE worst part of footy culture for me. It is completely unjustifiable and I fully believe, and understand why, it keeps fans of other sports away from soccer.

Anyway, anyone think it would be possible for FIFA, at least in its own competitions, to look at a new law that restricts a player leaving the pitch due to injury from re-entering for a set amount of time? Maybe just five minutes, but something that would discourage the crap that's going on now.

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A few people that I brought to the game thought that was the highlight of the game. A certain comical effect that was welcomed. Granted if Canada had stayed tied 1-1, I doubt we would have been having as much fun with it as we were.

The ref added 6 minutes to the game and St. Lucia did not prosper from the time wasting at all. So I didn't mind it.

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Ah, it's tricky.

You don't want to punish someone for being hurt, taking on a bit of cramp or whatever, it's just the nature of the beast. I mean honestly, anyone who's ever played this sport knows there are times when a bit of recovery is necessary. So you don't want to go too far and just assume everyone who goes down has less than honorable motives.

Wrote it before and I'll write it again. A player who needs treatment should be required to rejoin the field at the 4th officials half-field mark, just as if they were a substitution. It would give the player a chance to recover (off-field) from whatever it was which was ailing them and isn't that the point? To protect the player in question from further injury?

Tell you this, it would sure cut down on questionable "injuries" at the far end of the field. A player stretched off to the closest touch line who has to trot the circumference of the field and then wait for a stoppage to rejoin play is going to know if he's truly hurt or not, let me tell you. Cause if he's not it'll be out there for everyone to see, coach included, while his team is playing short.

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I'm going to respectfully disagree with all of you, ha ha. Yes, I believe the referee correctly added time and I think Canada even scored during the 6 minutes of "injury time". Regardless, I think St. Lucia created an unfair advantage. Stopping the game when your opponent is attacking, when they are building momentum, when you need a breather (which I think was motive operandi last night), all of these are tactics whose effectiveness is not nullified by time added on. I'm glad some people saw the humour in it, but I have been around too many sportspeople who have sworn they will not watch the sport again after seeing these antics.

I agree with Cheeta that it's tricky. And in any game, let alone a high level one, players will inevitably require attention. And real medical attention takes time. That's why I think a mandatory five minutes would work. Teams do not have to play shorthanded; they have three substitutions to use as well. In a way I like the idea of "shaming" the perpetrator but I could see the lap of shame being problematic in some grounds, ie EPL, where the stands are sometimes right on top of the goals.

I think those of us within footy culture are underestimating how repulsive time wasting is to many other sports fans. I really think that taking care of it would be a positive step in growing the game.

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I think those of us within footy culture are underestimating how repulsive time wasting is to many other sports fans. I really think that taking care of it would be a positive step in growing the game.

But remember that, when it comes to moaner and play actors, we do like to give 'em the old..."GET OFF YOUR FAT ARSE YOU F-F-AKEING FAIRY!"...."and go ref the game properly!

...or is it just me?

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