Referee chief Howard Webb has responded to high-profile criticism of the new time-wasting regulations by saying they’re “just trying to make the game fairer” and push out “dark arts” - putting it back on the players, as he also referred to their copy-cat influence on the wider game right down to grassroots.
“This has to change in our sport,” warned the chief refereeing officer of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL). “People will have to understand that some behaviours that previously would have been managed or ignored will no longer be managed or ignored and those behaviours will stop.”
Webb also cautioned against the idea that fans would now be forced through two-hour long league games as he said their research showed there would only be a three-minute increase from last season’s average of 98 and a half minutes, but that would hopefully come down with changes to behaviour. Webb also pointed to how this push comes from fan feedback, especially from the World Cup.
On a more trivial note, the former referee said the days of putting a humiliated side out of their misery by blowing up at 90 minutes are gone, as stoppages for goals have to be taken into account out of fairness - and potentially to decide the table at the end of the season.
The main concern from players has meanwhile been something much more serious, which is the physical toll over long seasons, as now articulated by Raphael Varane and Kevin De Bruyne. Webb pointed to the primary issue of “playing time”, which is how long the ball is actually in play, as the game attempts to get that back up to an hour. He also referred to the statistics that indicate the rules won’t bring that much of an increase in overall match length.
“We have seen a trend where playing time has come down, year on year, and we've seen time-wasting tactics being employed in certain situations and we're just trying to make the game fairer,” the 52-year-old said. “We're trying to get back playing time that might otherwise have been lost. The intention with time-wasting, like subs who walk off to the far side, is to make it a fairer game and we've been mandated by directives IFAB to do that and by us being more proactive in doing the job that we are there to do.
“In the Premier League, we saw 98-and-a-half minutes last year. We looked at the events that happened last year and applied the new methodology, and we think that's going to go up to about 11-and-a-half minutes per game, so three minutes more. We are expecting to see an increase, but not quite as much as what we saw with the Football League over the weekend.”
The lower divisions saw a huge increase in yellow cards for time-wasting, but Webb said that is new regulations working as they are supposed to.
“I’m not surprised there has been an increase in yellow cards, we were pretty strong in our messaging with our officials about the need to take action when players do things that clearly and deliberately impact the re-start of the game or deliberately waste time.
“That was based on feedback we got from clubs that we engaged with through the course of the season.
“I don’t think there has been a lot of push-back against that philosophy. I think people accept that if somebody runs 15 yards to stand in front of a free-kick it’s reasonable expectation you will get a yellow card, the same if you kick the ball away and prevent a quick throw-in being taken, and preventing the flow of the game.
“It’s not just about adding time on, it’s momentum lost and for sure there’s more dark arts in the game than previously. Everyone tells me that and I see that myself as well.
“One of the things that will hurt us if we are not consistent with this. It can’t be a flash in the pan or a short-term campaign. We do hope the yellow cards come down because it means player behaviour will be modified, and they do things in the full knowledge that they will be cautioned.”
Webb argued that copy-cat behaviour at grassroots is a huge driver of the new regulations, too.
“It is important our officials recognise, understand and differentiate between emotion and passion and not something that is unacceptable against those that are unacceptable. For too long officials have not necessarily been able to make that differentiation too well or they have chosen to turn a blind eye to certain things, maybe thinking it was the best way to deal with it, not make a fuss, not draw attention to what might have been perceived as an error on the field.
“But the power of example is so strong and we are seeing a lot of examples and all the numbers are travelling in the wrong direction around what is happening in the game. We are seeing grassroots officials having a bad experience too often. This has to change in our sport. We are determined collectively in our game to do this. It is resting on the shoulders of the officials to do this but they understand by doing it consistently, they will improve the example that is set and the experience in the professional game, while initially there are some changes in behaviour that will have to be driven through, they will end up with a game that is more enjoyable from their point of view as well.
“I think things will settle down a bit as officials continue to be proactive in modifying players' behaviour, but we've given them – with good reason – to be really on the front foot over delaying tactics and at the weekend they were calculating a lot of time around that type of thing.”
The days of a referee sparing a heavily-beaten team further punishment are over, however.
“We expect the increases to reflect match events, and an extra two or three minutes on top of last season's stoppage time will become the norm, but it will depend on the game.
“That will add up as well, but it won't be hugely excessive going forward. Even if a game finishes 7-0, like Barnsley last weekend, we are still advising officials to add the correct amount of time to preserve the integrity of goal difference.”
