Match length should be taken out of the referees hands. In the EPL the average time the ball is in play is 54 minutes. So let's make a match sixty in play minutes, the timekeeper stopping the clock every time the ball goes dead. That will mean taking an age to walk to a corner kick or taking a throw or goal kick will be pointless, both practices which drive fans up the wall. And it eliminates the controversy over whether the ref added too much time or not enough.
Alternatively, let's not bugger around with the laws of the game every time someone gets annoyed (the natural state of the football fan). The game is two halves of 45 minutes, the ref adds time on where they think there's been a stoppage that's too long and can book players if they think they're timewasting. Everything else is "new recipe Coke!"
I'm convinced that most of the complaints about timewasting are manufactured outrage. I'm an Arsenal fan, we've been pilloried for it all season, but we're slow taking corners because we're bloody good at them and want to get them organised, and we're slow at throw-ins because we're bloody awful at them and always have been (point of interest - we haven't scored from a long throw this season, and I'm not sure we ever have). And despite us being the poster-boys for "killing the game", I've yet to see one opposition fan complain about their players preventing our keeper releasing the ball when it's in his hands (this is a genuine moment where the ball is in play and playing time is being lost). He's one of the very fastest at trying to start a counter attack, and he's blocked every single time. I do remember people having a go at him for going down (timewasting) when someone barged into him as he was trying to release the ball, but hey, your player tried to buy time for your defenders to trot home and got a bargain extra minute, so why are you moaning? So make your minds up people - do you want to see devastating fast-attacking football where we score goals against you for fun, or do you want a moment for your players to get back into a defensive shape, at the cost of lost playing time?
