The Mexican League has chosen to “officialize” from the 2022 Opening Tournament 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 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 restarts in “throw-ins, goal kicks, corner kicks and referee decisions,” said the manager. If the players 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 one will be able to increase it, but never reduce it.
The question that the world of football asks: is this intervention legal? Liga MX has the consent of FIFA, which authorized it as a test measure. And this question motivates another question: if it works, can it be transferred to all competitions?
How does it apply?
Every time the ball stops, the timekeeper assumes the responsibility to measure it, record it, add it up and report it to the referee when it is about to end each period as “recovery of lost time”.
Has it been used in any 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 arrests 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 withdrawal of injured players.
-Wasting time released time.
Disciplinary sanctions.
– Breaks for medical reasons.
-Delays caused by VAR checks and reviews.
-Any other reason, any significant delay in resuming (example, goal celebrations)”.
The operator/timekeeper also contemplates:
-Band kicks.
– Corner kicks.
-Goal kicks.
-The delay in arbitral decisions.
According to what was stated by the President of the Liga MX, in the Closing Tournament that ended, with the support of the VAR to account for the “dead times”, 9 more minutes were played on average than before, more than those that had been added and they converted 7% more goals in added time than in previous tournaments. We will have to see what the impact is with the timekeeper. Will the solution to eradicate the teams that play not play?
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