The 60-Minute Clock in Football: Would It Work?

One of the scourges of modern football is time-wasting. A team turns up with no intention of actually trying to play the match, instead looking to take as much time out of the game as possible. To some extent, it is a legitimate way of playing, given the fact that teams with lesser resources would struggle to compete with sides like Liverpool and Manchester City when on a level playing field.

Yet for the paying supporter, it is depressing to know that games should be 90 minutes yet we only get to see about 55 minutes of time of the ball actually being in play across the game. Can anything be done to stop it?

What is the 60-Minute Clock?

For as long as football has been a sport that we all know and love, it has taken place over 90 minutes plus stoppage time. In theory, the stoppage time should include any time that a team has wasted by taking too long over goal kicks, free-kicks and corners, but officials rarely take that into account. In fact, when they did start adding huge amounts of stoppage time onto the end of matches held during the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, it became such a big news story that it didn’t last past the conclusion of the tournament. What, then, could the solution be?

@tifofootball_ Would 60 minute matches work? #Football #Referee #VAR #FootballRules #FIFA #FYP #LearnWithTikTok ♬ original sound – Tifo Football by The Athletic

One of the suggestions that raises its head every now and then is that football should follow in the footsteps of rugby union and make the game an hour long, but stop the clock every time the ball goes out of play or the referee stops it for some reason. Sports like basketball and American football also use a stop-clock, so it isn’t as if it is a revolutionary thought. In the 2021-2022 Premier League season, the ball-in-play time came in at an average of 55 minutes and three seconds, which was the lowest in more than a decade, so the stop-clock is designed to give us more football.

Why it Won’t Work

For those that are against the idea of messing with football’s famed time period of 90 minutes, the idea of making a match 60 minutes long and stopping the clock repeatedly simply isn’t right. Whilst those people are scared of messing with what is seen as tradition, there are plenty of others who are of the opinion that it won’t work simply because it won’t achieve what the advocates of it are hoping for. The idea behind the stopped clock theory is that it will eradicate time wasting, but teams that choose to opt for a running down of the clock via that method are unlikely to be put off by it.

Instead, they will simply feel as though their time-wasting tactics are entirely fine because the time is being added on anyway. For teams that like to keep the ball moving and ensure that it remains in play for as long as possible, it is the disruption caused by time-wasting that is the major issue. Given the fact that it almost certainly won’t stop, it isn’t even as if such a way of playing will help their tactics. There is no real manner in which a stopped clock will make any material difference to time-wasters, but it will result in matches lasting for a couple of hours or more, which neither attendees nor broadcasters will be pleased with.

What are the Alternatives?

If the stopped-clock option isn’t one that will actually work, the obvious question to ask is: what will? The answer might well come in the form of specific lengths of time being allotted to certain actions. We have already seen a new rule introduced for the 2025-2026 Premier League campaign that results in a corner kick being given if the goalkeeper holds onto the ball for too long. In the English top-flight, the average amount of time lost to goal kicks alone is seven minutes and 42 seconds, which amounts to around 30.4 seconds per goal kick, which is utterly crazy.

For throw-ins, the ball is out of play for an average of 11 minutes and 20 seconds waiting for a player to take it, which is 18 seconds each. Corner kicks see five minutes and 58 seconds go down the drain each match on average, with 13 minutes and 25 seconds disappearing for free-kicks. Football might well benefit from a time limit being imposed on each action, with the throw-in and free-kick being given to the other team if it takes longer than, say, five seconds for it to be taken. A goal kick could quickly turn into a corner for the opposition. Only then might teams start to be a bit more conscious of their time-wasting.