PSL's time-wasters are in for a shock

Safa head of referees Abdul Ebrahim has confirmed the notion of implementing last year's World Cup phenomenon of lengthy stoppage time in PSL games will be top of the agenda in their next workshop sometime this month.

The Qatar World Cup saw some games stretch to the 100th minute with the Group B clash between England and Iran in November lasting an incredible 117 minutes and 16 seconds.

When PSL action resumed after the World Cup late December, it was expected that local match officials would follow the global showpiece's approach of more stoppage time given the fact that players waste time like nobody's business in this part of the world. Surprisingly, PSL match officials have hardly added a maximum of seven minutes since the resumption of action after the World Cup.

"We haven't had our mid-season workshop due to congestion of the fixtures but we will be having one in the next coming weeks. We will seriously look at this issue [of implementing lengthy stoppage time in the PSL, and I can tell you it tops the agenda,'' Ebrahim told Sowetan. 

"What happened at the World Cup is nothing out of the norm. The laws of the game cover that the match officials should add any time that's lost during injuries, throw-ins, etc. Most referees now have stopwatches, so they can keep track of lost time."

Ebrahim conceded that PSL players habitually waste time. "Unfortunately, it has become a norm in our football that when a team has an advantage their players waste time... we must stop that by recovering that time through referee's optional minutes,'' the Safa head of refs noted.

"If you really sit and do statistics, you can see how much time is wasted outside of throw-ins... time already lapses when we have throw-ins, there are a few seconds for every throw-in and corner kick. When there's a free-kick awarded, the player takes time to take it."