Infantino on rule changes: ‘We will not introduce a stop clock’

The general assembly of the IFAB (International Football Association Board) took place in London today headed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino with the issue of time-wasting one of the key topics on the agenda.

Matches spanning 100 minutes could become commonplace with FIFA president Gianni Infantino calling for more accurate calculations regarding added time to be implemented in competitions around the world.

“It has been widely appreciated by everyone. We want to fight against time-wasting, we want the fans to enjoy the game,” Infantino told an IFAB news conference.

Despite the fact that one of the proposed alternatives is to use a ‘stopwatch’ system instead of running time, at least in specific moments of the game such as injuries or changes, Infantino ruled out such a possibility: “We want to fight against wasting time and have more effective time”.

“Pierluigi Collina already explained our concern in this regard at the World Cup. But we won’t change the rules, we won’t stop the clock. The laws are universal and must be universally accepted”, he commented. This rejection had already been made palpable at the previous IFAB meeting in January.

Statistics supplied by Opta in 2021 showed that English Premier League matches were seeing ‘actual playing time’ of well under 60 minutes.

In contrast, the France-Australia match at the World Cup featured 67 minutes of ball-in-play time.