Time-Wasting Epidemic Ruining Spectacle, By A Young Match-Going Red

The Premier League is suffering from a time-wasting epidemic (or game-vandalism, as Paul Tomkins calls it) that, alongside the pernicious and farcical sportswashing regimes, is jeopardising the future of the competition.

There was a concerning atmosphere towards the end of the Aston Villa match at Anfield; after over an hour of shouting at the referee and the Villa players, a feeling of apathy began to develop; ‘we are being so blatantly robbed, what actually is the point anymore?’

And I don’t mean robbing in terms of being robbed of the three points; I mean that fans pay a lot of money to watch a game of football, not to watch forty minutes of football, and over an hour of players pretending to be injured and scratching their arses instead of taking goal kicks.

I could go on a rant about the big decisions in that match against Villa, which also left me incredulous, but this is a separate issue that urgently requires serious discussion.

It’s not about winning or losing. This is the third occasion I’ve seen this method of vandalising of a football match; two out of the three times, Liverpool won the game, and they didn’t lose against Villa either. So it’s not about the result (although it makes it much harder to win games, this piece is more about how it is ruining the experience of watching football, which many people struggle to afford).

This also isn’t only about Liverpool. Other teams are suffering too; this is a genuine concern about what is happening in Premier League football matches.

And if any further proof is needed that this isn’t purely coming from a place of bias, the impressive and intelligent (and fundamentally, neutral) Opta Analysts took it upon themselves to produce a expose on teams time-wasting in the Premier League. And the results were as fascinating as they were frightening.

It read:

“The average ball-in-play time in the Premier League this season is 54 minutes and 46 seconds. That’s the lowest it’s ever been in the 11 seasons since records began (2012-13).”

This game, however, saw just 48 minutes played, despite 18 minutes added – over 60 minutes of ‘dead time’. Over an hour spent watching … nothing. And that’s not including half-time.