The reason why Premier League players may be penalised for celebrating too much | OneFootball

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As officials continue to look for ways to improve football, it seems cracking down on time-wasting is the next initiative set to be employed in England, with numerous methods being brought in this season to try and put a stop to the tactic.

Time-wasting has been around for so long, it's hard to remember a time when they weren't so apparent in football. Whether it's taking your time to take a set piece, kicking the ball away, feigning an injury or prolonged goal celebrations, there have been numerous different tactics employed to try and waste time when your team is in a winning position, but officials are finally doing something about it, with a new rule set to be introduced across England's football leagues once this season gets underway.

What are officials doing about time-wasting this season?

This season, officials are going to add the time lost during a game due to goal celebrations at the end of the match in an effort to reduce the lengthy stoppages that occur as a result of a goal.

The move will both encourage teams to spend less time on their celebrations and will ensure that there aren't huge chunks of the game lost due to the stoppages. A recent report revealed that last season, the ball was in play during an average Premier League game for just 54 minutes and 46 seconds, the lowest amount it has ever been since the statistic started being recorded during the 2012/13 season.

It's an alarming indication of just how little football is actually being played in England's top flight and that is largely as a result of the time-wasting that many teams within the league are employing to try and hold on to their desired result. Two teams that have been accused of being the biggest culprits for time-wasting are Newcastle United and Arsenal and that was never more prevalent than during the pair's clash in January when the ball was in play for a record-low 51 minutes.

Whether you're a neutral or you have skin in the game, watching a side do just about anything to waste as much time as possible is so frustrating to watch play out, so having officials act on it this year and try and put an end to the strategy is encouraging and will hopefully see it occur less and see more football actually being played throughout the campaign.

It isn't just an issue in England, though, with none of Europe's top five leagues seeing the ball in play for over 60 per cent of a match on average, and it's damaging for the sport.

Do goal celebrations really cost a lot of time?

According to Opta Analyst, on average, a goal and the subsequent celebrations that follow eat up around 72 seconds of a match, with that number only increasing depending on the situation.

It's becoming a common occurrence for a side to score late in a game, eating up the final minutes with their celebrations and then the contest is brought to an end without the opposition side even being given a fair shake at responding. It's not right, so the news that referees will now ensure the time lost will be played at the end is welcoming.

Who are the biggest time-wasters in the Premier League?

Almost every team is guilty of time-wasting from time to time, but there are a few who are certainly more likely to do so than others. Newcastle are easily the biggest culprit of wasting minutes during a Premier League contest, with the Magpies seeing the ball in play for an average of just 51.7 per cent of their games last season.

Sometimes their efforts came back to bite them, like during their contest with Liverpool early in the campaign when the Reds scored during the final moments, with the goal coming after the allocated time to make up for some of the excessive time-wasting. Hilariously, many felt Newcastle had been cheated with the goal coming so late, but when you look at how much time they wasted, the added time was only fair and just.

On the flip side, Manchester City are unsurprisingly the team who have the ball in play the most, with the Premier League champions very rarely feeling the need to waste time. Instead, they have the ball in play for 61.8 per cent of their games, but that is still just 60 minutes of their matches, meaning there's half an hour of the contest lost. It's an indictment of the need to change how the sport is officiated and how much time is wasted on stoppages and fouls.

Goal celebrations won't be the only time added to the end of a game going forward, though, with extra time added for the time lost during penalties and red card decisions, as well as ensuring that teams will always have a fair shake, hopefully.

How the method was used during the 2022 World Cup

The tactic to cut time-wasting has already been tried out in the past, with referees adding time to games during the 2022 World Cup tournament.

The result was matches regularly having over 10 minutes of added time, and it became a huge talking point of the tournament, but it was largely a success. The added time meant fans got more bang for their buck and there was just more football played than usual.

The method is there to punish teams who are trying to waste time, ensuring their efforts will largely go to waste, and hopefully, it will eventually lead to time-wasting becoming almost non-existent and the frequent showing of poor sportsmanship will disappear from the game for the most part.

It's a stain on the game right now to see these players regularly viewed as role models to children, regularly partaking in these unsporting acts to try and hold on to a result, but that may hopefully come to an end if the officials truly crack down on time-wasting this season, and it proves to be a success.