Five of the weekend’s Premier League fixtures saw the clock reach the 100-minute mark as referees made sure to add on lost time
Players have been warned to expect “more pain” after a crackdown on time-wasting saw the average length of Premier League matches exceed 100 minutes in this season’s opening round of games.
Nearly 104 minutes were played in cumulative added time across nine games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The average amount of injury time per game was a record high of 11mins 34secs.
Law changes by the International Football Association Board, adopted worldwide by Fifa, have seen referees instructed by PGMOL chief refereeing officer Howard Webb to calculate lost time and punish offenders.
Former top-flight referee and ex-PGMOL general manager Keith Hackett urged Webb to stand firm, despite seeing match times surge this season. “Players and managers were warned that this would happen,” he told Telegraph Sport. “Howard Webb would never call it a crackdown – but that is what it is. We will go through some more pain until we get players and managers reacting in a better way – but Webb has to hold his nerve.”