FIFA panel to debate 60-minute game clock

ST PETERSBURG (AP):

Football's rule-making panel wants debate on moving to 60-minute games and stopping the clock when the ball is not in play.

Playing two halves each of 30 minutes' actual playing time would be a 'radical change' to the laws of Football, the FIFA-supported International Football Association Board (IFAB) acknowledged.

It features in a five-year strategy document of talking points and proposals with three goals to increase respect, playing time and attractiveness of the game.

"The aim of this document is to generate discussion and take a fresh look at how the Laws could make the game better," IFAB said in the document called Play Fair!

Any changes would take years to enact after discussions and trials overseen by IFAB, which revises football's laws annually and comprises officials from FIFA and the four British football federations.

Fans have become frustrated that games of 90 regulation minutes, plus time added for stoppages at referees' discretion, typically produce "fewer than 60 minutes of effective (actual) playing time," IFAB said.

On Saturday, there were just 47 minutes of actual playing time in Russia's 2-0 win over New Zealand to open the Confederations Cup, according to FIFA.

The game in St Petersburg took less than 1 hour, 50 minutes from the first whistle to last, which suggests a 60-minute, stop-start clock would take more than two hours to complete as football adapted.

The 60-minute, stop-start game clock proposal would take away the incentive for time-wasting by players, IFAB suggested. A stadium clock could show spectators and TV viewers when the referee accounted for play having stopped.