Former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein: “I’ve campaigned all my life in football for fairness, for accuracy and integrity in the game. Time-wasting is one area of the game that hasn’t had the attention it deserves. The good news is that now it is getting on the agenda."
Thursday 12 January 2023 22:07, UK
In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports, former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein talks about his 10-year campaign to try to solve football's time-wasting problem...
"A goal can be scored in 10 seconds."
That is the starting point for former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein's 10-year-long campaign to tackle time-wasting in football.
"How long do you think it takes to score a goal?," Dein told Sky Sports. "On average, people will say anywhere between 30 seconds and two minutes.
"I've got not one, but dozens of examples where a three or four-man move that ends with a goal can take just 10 seconds.
"I've campaigned all my life in football for fairness, for accuracy and integrity in the game. Time-wasting is one area of the game that really hasn't had the attention it deserves."
Dein is not wrong.
The amount of football being played in the Premier League has hit an all-time low.
At an average Premier League game this season, the ball has been in play for less than 56 per cent of the match. That figure has been falling consistently over the past 10 years and with 2022/23 the lowest on record.
England's top-flight competition is seeing more time lost to slow restarts, VAR checks, delaying tactics, substitutions, time-consuming injuries and feigning injury than ever, and officials are struggling to keep up with time-wasting.
However, Dein, who was vice-chairman of the FA, believes time-keeping is an area of the game where pressure can be taken away from the referee by bringing in an independent time-keeper, and he insists the officials would not object
He said: "I did a survey with the referees where I asked them three questions. The first question was can you be accurate to the last 10 seconds? Answer, no.
"Second question, do you agree that when the fourth official puts up the board for additional time it is based on guesswork? Answer, our description would trend towards based on estimates, but we accept it is not accurate and very difficult to be consistent.
At the top level of the game, I know a lot of referees would be quite happy to have time-keeping taken over by an official in the stand.
"The third question is, would you have any objection if time-keeping was not your responsibility? Answer, no. It would allow the referee to further concentrate on the game.
"For me, that is game, set and match. What more evidence would you want than that?"
As previously mentioned, this is a topic Dein has done a lot of work on previously, pointing to a quote from Sir Alex Ferguson in 2012, saying after Man Utd's 3-2 defeat to Tottenham: "It is a flaw in the game that referees are still responsible for time-keeping."
However, time-wasting is now firmly back in the spotlight, especially after the World Cup where we saw FIFA's referees chief Pierluigi Collina's initiative to detail additional-time more accurately.
It led to the average match during last month's tournament exceeding 101 minutes and it was well-received in general, particularly by the fans.
"It was refreshing to see that there was eight, nine, 10, 11 and even 12 minutes added on at the end of games," Dein said.
"I asked the officials, why? They were honest enough to say that they believed insufficient time had been added on before. That was a breakthrough.
He added: "FIFA were pleased with how it went at the World Cup. It was a revelation. I didn't hear anyone complain about it.
"What the World Cup has done has made this issue more obvious. It has brought it to the public's attention. People are seeing nine, 10, 11 minutes on the board and they haven't seen that before. People started to ask, why is that?
"FIFA would not have done that had there not been a problem beforehand. Clearly they must have said to the officials, 'let's add a minute and 30 seconds on for goal celebrations, the correct time for injuries, substitutions and VAR checks', and you are getting at least 10 minutes in every game, whereas the average before the World Cup was five minutes. Two for the first half and three for the second."
So, along with brining in an independent time-keeper, what are Dein's ideas to tackle football's time-wasting problem?
"It's all about accuracy and fairness," Dein said passionately. "I don't want every second added on, but what I do want is that when there is clear time-wasting, sufficient time is added on.
"Every time the ball goes out of play for a long injury, a substitution, a VAR check or a goal celebration, the clock stops.
It is a flaw in the game that referees are responsible for time-keeping.
"Will the game go on longer? Yes, I see an additional five minutes of pure time per game, but I'm not going to be so granular as to say that time is stopped for every throw-in or every corner kick. That would be getting too technical and over-engineering it.
"I'm just saying that for the four or five areas of the game where there is the most time wasted, let's at least add that on at the end of the game. It would take all the nonsense of time-wasting out of the game."
"Alternatively, you can literally have a clock that logs the time when time is wasted. Let the public know. It should not be a national secret!"
Just as with every new innovation that gets talked about for football, there will be sceptics.
Dein points to things like the 10-yard spray used by the referee, goal line technology and VAR as examples of why he is eager for the game to keep on improving.
He said: "The game has moved on, and credit to FIFA because they are the governing body, we introduced the 10-yard spray, which was an innovation in its time. That was nearly 10 years ago now and people said it would never be used. It's used in every game now and has cut out an area of cheating that was going on.
"We then had goal-line technology and people said it'd be used once or twice, but it is used at least 12 times every season. We saw it in action last week when Brentford's Yoane Wissa scored against Liverpool. And when Kalidou Koulibaly scored for Chelsea at Fulham.
"Then we get to VAR, and it has revolutionised the game because it has brought accuracy. It has taken out a lot of the contentious decisions in the game and it will get better and better. There will also be more communication down the line."
Dein goes on to explain that in his experience, a campaign usually last between three to five years before getting a result.
This one has now been going on for 10 years, it is now starting to build momentum. So, what's next?
"The Premier League know about it," he said.
"I want to see change and I want to see progress, but I now want to see this rocket have a safe landing. Getting it on the agenda is the first thing and the fact people are now debating this shows it's becoming a live issue.
"I've got no agenda," he added. "I'm not looking for a job or payment. I just want to see the game improve.
"The good news is that now it is getting on the agenda and the only thing I am campaigning for is a trial. Let's see it in action in a junior FIFA tournament. Use it in a U17 or U20 tournament and let's see how it works.
"I don't know how long it will take, but I'm hopeful we'll see that trial somewhere shortly, which would be a big move forward."
