An extra judge is in charge of accounting for each save in the game and reporting the minutes lost at the end of each period to the referee, to encourage agile football and that favors the teams that propose
By
Miguel Scime
The moment of adding minutes at the end of each half (Getty)
The Mexican League has chosen to “officialize” the implementation of the additional use of a stopwatch to assist the referee with the data of the exact time that was lost during the match and know how much additional time should be applied.
Mikel Arriola, president of the Liga MX, clarified that it is a search so that there are no dead times and that the agility of the game is rewarded. In order to have more effective time in the game, the leadership decided to have a stopwatch on the field to speed up the resumptions in “throw-ins, goal kicks, corner kicks and referee decisions,” said the manager. If the footballers intend to delay, they will know that this lost time will inevitably be added to the end and will not depend on a random calculation by the refereeing body.
It is true that the judges had been doing this through the information provided by the VAR since its establishment, but now, at least in Mexico, it has been decided to make it official with a new figure of “referee/timekeeper”, who will be seated in the middle of the field and will measure the lost time. Near the end of the match, he will notify the main judge. Important, this can increase it, but never reduce it.
The question that the world of football asks: is this intervention legal? Liga MX has the approval of FIFA, which authorized it as a test measure. And this question raises another question: if it works, can it be transferred to all competitions?
How is it applied?
Every time the ball stops, the timekeeper assumes the responsibility to measure it, register it, add it up and inform the referee when it is about to end each period as “recovery of lost time”.
< p class=”paragraph”>Has it been used in a tournament?
It has only been used since VAR was born, “but only when a play is reviewed.” At the end, the lost time is communicated and the referee must add that information and add it to his calculation.
But this test adds a new operator to record all stoppages and the rule does not contemplate it ”. Rule 7, on the duration of the match, in point three says that “the referee may extend each period, due to:
-Substitutions;
-Attention or removal of injured players.
-Wasting of time released from time.
Disciplinary sanctions.
-Breaks for medical reasons.
-Delays caused by VAR checks and reviews.
-Any other reason, any significant delay to the be resumed (eg, goal celebrations)”.
The operator/timekeeper also considers:
-Throw-ins.
-Corner kicks.
-Goal kicks.
-The delay in arbitration decisions.
According to what was stated by the President of Liga MX, in the Closing Tournament that ended, with the support of the VAR to account for the “dead times”, 9 games were played more minutes on average than before, more than those that had been added and 7% of goals were converted in added times than in previous tournaments. We will have to see what the impact is with the timekeeper. Will it be the solution to eradicate the teams that play not to play?