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Mike Dean and Howard Webb share their views on new changes to additional time

Mike Dean and Howard Webb share their views on new changes to additional time amid an outcry of criticism over it in recent weeks.

The two former referees gave their opinions on the rule changes in the days leading up to the 2023/24 Premier League season.

The EFL, non league and Carabao Cup have already had matches with games playing on in some cases over the 110 minutes mark.

Goals, substitutions, injuries, penalties and red cards will be taken into account with time added on.

The EFL add that match officials will take a more “robust approach” to dealing with players time wasting.

Yellow cards will be issued to those delaying the restart of play or not retreating the necessary distance at a free-kick.

Weekend’s longest EFL matches:
Northampton v Stevenage – League One – 112 mins 36 secs
Shrewsbury v Cheltenham – League One – 110 mins 47 secs
Accrington v Newport – League Two – 110 mins 47 secs
Sutton United v Notts County – League Two – 110 mins 41 secs
Barnsley v Port Vale – League One – 110 mins 33 secs

Mike Dean spoke with talkSPORT, saying in a two minute clip:

MK: You look at the stats from last year, I think the Premier League ball in play was average about 56/58 minutes. League Two was 48, which is like it’s just criminal, 48 minutes. So you’re going to watch a game for 90 minutes, you’re probably going to get 48 minutes worth of football, which is not good. I know last week the the Sheffield Wednesday Southampton game on the Friday night, I think average last year Champ was about 55, 56 minutes. On Friday they played 69 minutes worth of football.Y es, it’s more football, but do you want to try and keep as much as supporters complain about the price of tickets, you still want to watch a game of football. You don’t always go and watch 45 minutes worth of football. The game last 90 minutes. So now you’re probably looking at average of at least 65 to probably 70 minutes worth of football, which is better for the supporters, but might be better than long for the players.

Andy Goldstein: I don’t see I’m old school and maybe it’s my age, but I don’t know if it is better for the supporters. I was brought up on how football was in the just think time wasting and goal celebrate… that’s part of the game. I mean, how far do you think they’re going to take it eventually? We’ve talked in the past about stopping the clock every single time that ball goes out and then it becomes like American football. That’s not the football, that’s not the game we grew up with. Right. When’s it all going to end, all these rule changes?

MD: No, I agree. And I think every year there’s always a bit of a tinkering with some kind of rules and some kind of application they want to use in. But I think all clubs have had bits off management from the Premier League and the Football League to say that they’re trying to stop time wasting. The rule of thumb used to be, was that 30 seconds for a sub, 30 seconds for a goal, 30 seconds for an injury. Which is fine, but people score goals now and you don’t get the Strikers in the midfield celebrating, you get the whole team going. And it can probably last at least two and a half minutes. We had a thing last year with the Premier League where they showed a game at Wolves last year where I think we played like 3 minutes added time. And if you stop the watch, every time we went out for like, injuries, substitutions, goals, we should have been at least 7/8/10 minutes at a time. So I think it’s a way of trying to get more football for supporters to watch, trying to get a better value for money for people to come watch the game, I guess. I know it’ll be hard to get your head around this straight away, but think it’ll be part of the course. Use that’s that’s how it’s going to be in the future. I can’t see it changes, to be honest with you. Especially if it does work. It worked in the World Cup and no one complained in the world.

Meanwhile, Howard Webb said via the Guardian that there will be no let-up in referees’ attempts to tackle time-wasting and reckon their actions will make the game fairer.

“This was born out of a desire to create a fairer game, whereby the loss of time was accounted for in a more accurate way,” he said. “We’ve seen a declining trend in effective playing time and the Ifab are determined to rectify that. I’ve heard lots of noise from fans about the loss of time – we are down to 48 minutes in League Two [on average] – and we need to do more to increase effective playing time. People are paying good money to watch football and are getting a lower and lower number [of minutes] each year.

“We’re not a million miles away already. Last season, a quarter of the games in the Premier League went above 100 minutes. It’s not like the old days of one and three minutes. We are seeing more tactics designed to slow the game down.

“ It’s not just about adding time on. It’s about actions we can take in the moment to deal with those tactics. We’ve got a bigger analysis team now and we’re looking to identify tactics that are used nefariously to delay the game.

Webb said: “Based on the research we’ve done we think another three minutes will be the norm. But it depends on the game. If the game finishes 7-4 or there are 10 substitutions I would expect a lot of additional time. Even if a game is 6-0 or 7-0 we are still instructing the officials to add the correct amount of time because the first tie-breaker is goal difference. Therefore, if a team is winning 7-0 it could end up 8-0 or 9-0, it could end up being 7-2, and that could make the difference between promotion, playoff spots or relegation in the final analysis.

“We have to change mindsets. We will stick to this. We are not going to ease off. We are not going to start ignoring behaviours in October or November. This will be here for good. We have a responsibility to the game at all levels and to the future of the game to make it a better place for all participants.”

It’s added that there won’t be any plans to broadcast live audio from referees, however, Webb will explain contentious decisions in a monthly show on Premier League Productions.

Fans reacted as Mike Dean and Howard Webb share their views on the new changes to additional time…

@terzmacd: Very rarely I’ll agree with Mike Dean , sick of seeing time wasting….. Keepers not releasing the ball for upto 30 seconds aswel, what happened to the 6 second rule 🤷🏻‍♂️

@andrewhewitt1: I’m all for this. It was getting ridiculous the amount of gamesmanship going on in League 2 and the lack of time the ball was in play. As a fan attending games I’m happy for 110 or so minutes to be played if it discourages time wasting and general game spoiling tactics.

@lukemusf: If a player goes down injured on the pitch stop the clock like in other sports. If it’s legitimate we know the exact time added on. It’ll stop fake injuries and time wasting

@WezCollins: It’s would be interesting to know how much stoppage time was played in the first 10 games of the World Cup versus the last 10 games. I’d imagine there was quite a bit less in the last 10 games as players learned that time wasting wasn’t going to help (as much)

@MikeJuden: Not sure how thick a lot of professional footballers are but, the simple answer is, you as players could stop cheating and time wasting, meaning less time added imagine that… just play football and get on with it.

@Arsenalfanblog: If clowns like him booked players who were wasting time a lot quicker and not wait to the 88th minute, then there wouldn’t be such a problem

@mjpomar: I agree with the general principal here, but a much simpler more transparent and more effective solution is to just move to exact timing, like other sports do. It’s 2023 every club in the country can afford to employ someone to stop a clock everytime the ball goes out of play.

@MattyRobbo24: Once players learn that time wasting won’t work the added on time will reduce just like it did at the end of the World Cup!

@dean_coxy: How about just a game clock that gets stopped when the ball is out of play or players are rolling round on the floor! No guesstimating on additional time, play till the clock says 90 mins. Simple!

@_Baggy84: Exactly. So tell the little bitch footballers to stop moaning.

@PhiloThfc: And he is 💯 correct, sitting at white hart lane last season was mind numbing regards the slow play and deliberate time wasting. Part of the reason why I didn’t pay for season tickets for my son & myself. Its getting out of hand.

@MichaelJK11: 48 minutes!? People will moan about adding 8-10 but won’t say anything about the 42 minutes missing..

@chaddy_9611: Adding minutes on for actual time wasting is absolutely fine but adding on for normal stoppages like when the ball goes out for a goal kick or a player taking a throw is nonsense. That’s part of the match!

@AND71077: So cause its not the game Goldstien grew up with he doesn’t like it… fails to remember the game changes by his previous employer who he was with for many years working on the football side of things, he didn’t moan about changes then thru those years did he ! Hypocrite

@mickycantwell: What on earth is Goldstein on about. Pundits and Managers are the first to whinge about time wasting. Now they’re doing something about it and they aren’t happy.

@Davi87860221Tom: I agree, it’s £50 at least every home game and by the time you put travel etc in there you are looking closer to £80, for those in the media who don’t have to pay for games it’s fine but for proper fans, you need to have value for money in such a harsh climate right now.

@looneymetal: Don’t think ref should be in charge of time. Should just be on scoreboard where time pauses when ball not in play.

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