The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is scheduled to meet next week to deliberate on radical new strategies intended to “stop deliberate time-wasting” and increase the ball-in-play duration during professional matches.
The proposed measures include implementing strict countdown clocks for throw-ins and goal-kicks, as well as placing hard limits on the time allowed for player substitutions.
These discussions follow a series of recent interventions by the board to “reduce wasted time in matches,” such as the rule change implemented last year where “the attacking team gets a corner if a goalkeeper holds the ball for more than eight seconds.”
If approved, these latest proposals would represent one of the most significant shifts in match management in the modern era, targeting the habitual delays that have increasingly frustrated fans and officials alike.