Timing

Tommy:
Extraordinary goals. Amazing matches. The goat lifting the cup. The World Cup in Qatar had many big moments, yet one of the biggest talking points was something no one could have predicted: stoppage time. Finally, it seems, we saw stoppage time being added on properly. The last 10 minutes or so created some amazing moments and we seem to get real value out of every match. Do we need to take a look at the timing problem that football has?

Tomo:
昨年のワールドカップで多くの記憶に残る瞬間がありました。そんな中、大きな話題になったことがありました。それはアディショナルタイムです。誰も予想していなかったことかもしれません。ワールドカップのゲームでは、90分の試合後の時間にさらに時間が追加されるようになり、最後の10分間によってゲームはより劇的な瞬間を生み出すことになりました。

サッカーのゲームが抱えるアディショナルタイムの話題に目を向けてみます。というわけで、本日はタイミング、アディショナルタイムについて喋ってみようかなと思います。ABEMAの解説で本田さんが出てきて7分っていうのがね、結構日本でねやったんだけど、知ってるトミー？

Tommy:
No I don't think I do know that one actually. 7 minutes?

Tomo:
うん。そんなにあるの？みたいな感じで、解説で言っていて、日本でも話題になった。この現象について喋ってみようかなと思うんですけど、実はねワールドカップの2日前にレフェリングカンファレンスっていうのがあって、そこで日本の人も知ってる人が多いと思うんすよイタリア人の、ピエール ルイージ コッリーナさんって人が出てきて、今回は（追加タイムが）伸びますっていうのはね、言ってたんですよね。

ゴールセレブレーションが、実は1分から1分半ぐらいみんなかかってるので、3ゴール生まれたらそれだけで本当は5分6分かかってるんじゃないかっていう話をしていて、実際に始まってみると、こんなに長いのかっていうの思いました。それについて、本日喋ってみようと思います。

Tommy:
Let's start with some vocab. The first, actually a few words because there's a few different ways to say this period of time in English. We call it stoppage time, additional time, injury time, time added on; there's probably a few others that I'm forgetting but they all basically mean the same thing. And in Japanese you say...?

Tomo:
追加時間。ロスタイムね、Lost of time。これはジャパニーズイングリッシュですね。

Tommy:
Yeah, lost time I guess you would say that in English, but we don't say that at all. Stoppage time, additional time, injury time is a common one, although a little bit incorrect because it's not just injuries. And yeeah time added on.

There's also some words to describe the things that happened in this time. Typically a goal you'd sell a last minute winner, a last minute winning goal, a last gasp winner and things like that. So there's, there's quite a few words around just this very small period of time.

Tomo:
ね、たくさん言い方あるので結構。覚えてください。 stoppage time, additional time, injury time、ちなみに日本語はね、2010年からJリーグの試合、アディショナルタイムに統一しましょうっていうのがなってるので12年前に決まってるんですけど。 実は、今でもね昨日やっぱりスポーツ新聞のWebサイト行ってみると、ロスタイムってことはね、まだ使ってたんでね、これは根強いですねこの言葉はね、キーパーチャージぐらい根強い言葉かもしれないすね。

Tommy:
The second word is 'precise' or the opposite word, 'imprecise'. Precise means "exact and accurate", imprecise is "not accurate or exact". So for example, the midfielder's precise pass split the defence and allowed the striker to score the winning goal.

Tomo:
日本語は正確ながプレサイズ。インプレサイズは不正確って感じなので、今日のテーマに近いかな。それ（追加時間）を正確に取ろうとするから、長くなりましたっていうのが。

Tommy:
Yes. When you talk about time, you often use these words precise and imprecise. Imprecise is just the same word, but with 'im', I - M on the front. This is a common way of doing the opposite, the negative meaning. In japanese like "fu".

Tomo:
そうね、正確の前についてる不が、プレサイズの前にim がつくと不正確となる。

Tommy:
And the third is a saying that is often used in English: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

This means if something is working well or if it's at least working okay, then any attempts to improve it might actually make it worse. A lot of football fans feel this way about the laws of the game. For example, offside handball and IFAB constantly changing things. So if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Tomo:
日本語は、難しかったね、壊れてないなら直そうとするなって言う訳になるらしいんですけどもうちょっと言い換えると、問題がないのに余計なことをするな、もしくは下手に手を出して余計なことすると逆に問題起きちゃうんじゃないかっていう感じの意味合いなので。これね、今回の問題にね、結構正しい言葉かもしれないっすね。

Tommy:
Exactly, yes. I think it definitely is appropriate for this. And just to point out "ain't" means "isn't" in this sense. It's not a word that you should use though - "ain't" is bad English. It's kind of like slang. You can use it in this one sentence but I wouldn't recommend using it very often.

Tomo:
正しい英語は So if it isn’t broken, don't fix it. でしょ？

Tommy:
Exactly, yep. So that's the vocab for this week.

Let's get into a little bit of the detail around this topic as well. So you mentioned the stoppage time, particularly. There's another problem with football matches which is the length of football, the amount of time the ball is in play. So the actual amount of football that we see in a match in the Premier League is on average, approximately 55 minutes. So out of a 90 minute match, we actually only see 55 minutes of action.

Tomo:
これね気付かないとそんなに少ないんだって思ったかな。実際にボールが動いてプレイされてる時間が90分のうち、大体55分しかないんですよっていうのはね、これ改めて言われるとそんなに、35分もやってないんかってなるよね。

Tommy:
That's right. It means we're missing out on 35 minutes of action. It kind of feels like we've been ripped off a little bit. And I was also like, "man, where does that 35 minutes go?" That's a lot of time just wasted.

Tomo:
それ結構ね、意識したことがあって、数えてんだけど、あのね、フリーキックのね、ファール起きてから、蹴るまでがめっちゃ長い。そんなに時間かけてんだって。

Tommy:
We'll talk about that a little bit later on! That's in my notes.

So one proposed change to fix this is changing the current timing system to a countdown clock where any stoppage in play would stop the clock. So if there's a free kick, the clock stops. If the ball goes out, the clock stops Any other reason that the ball is not in play, the clock would stop.

Tomo:
バスケットだよね、わかりやすく言うとね。

Tommy:
Exactly. Yes, IFAB recently decided not to go ahead with the trial of this new system. It would have seen the match length change from 90 minutes to 60 minutes. So the whole match - we would see 60 minutes of football and any time around that would not be counted.

Tomo:
60分でバスケふうにやってみましょうっていうのが1回提示されたけど...って感じだね?

Tommy:
Yeah. So IFAB are not going to go ahead with it at the moment. But as we said in the introduction, proper stoppage time in the World Cup was actually very popular. Everyone thought this is a great thing for football. We don't need to change the clock, we just need to add on the time properly at the end. The one complaint that I saw out of the World Cup was that it could lead to increased injuries.

Tomo:
うん、それ思ったねえ。

Tommy:
Yeah, you're playing an extra period of time. Extra 10-15 minutes can have an effect, especially if you've got extra time afterwards.

Tomo:
ワールドカップ見てて覚えてるのは、例えばさ、残り5分ぐらいなるじゃん？85分とか87分とかになって、いや待ってよ。まだ、あと8、9分があるんじゃないって思い始めて...

Tommy:
Yeah, it was interesting because I remember the first few matches, everyone's just used to normal football. Maybe there'll be 3 or 4 minutes...what? There's 10 minutes?! It was a really big shock.

In England versus Iran in the group stage, there was actually 27 minutes of stoppage time. In the first half and the second half - so an extra 30 minutes. So basically this was the full 90 minutes of a match.

Tomo:
うん、うん。そっかそういうことね。だから90分やろうとしたってことだよね。本当にね。

Tommy:
Pretty much that's how it worked out. Japan against Germany, there was 14 minutes in total. It felt like we were getting good value out of it.

Tomo:
長かったよ。だから勝ってたから、長かったよ、より長く感じたよ。もう終わってくれって！

Tommy:
That's right. Exactly. It's good if you're losing, bad if you're winning. More stress.

I wanted to go through what the laws of the game currently say about keeping time. So this is law 7: "The Duration of the Match", part 3 "Allowance for Time Lost." That's the specific rule in english.

Tomo:
これだから僕たちも使ってるサッカールール本ですね。the Laws of the game. これに則ってサッカーのゲームをやっています。

Tommy:
Yeah. So this is what the law says:

"allowance is made by the referee in each half for all playing time lost in that half through:

• substitutions
• assessment and or removal of injured players
• wasting time
• disciplinary sanctions
• medical stoppages permitted by competition rules, for example, drinks breaks and cooling breaks
• delays relating to VR checks and reviews
• any other cause including any significant delay to a restart. For example, goal celebrations."

Okay, so a lot of words there. In short, it's pretty broad and not very specific. For example, there's nothing about throw ins or goal kicks.

Tomo:
あぁ、入ってないね。

Tommy:
Yeah. So what happens there? But then also says for any other cause, any other reason you could add stoppage time. So it's kind of up to each referee to do it as they want to I guess.

Tomo:
去年かな、僕は何回か言ってきたんだけど、あのVARの時間があって、（試合の時間は）本当はもっと延びてるはずなのに、アディショナルタイムに加わってない！っていうのを突っ込んでたんだけど... （ルールにVARの時間が追加されると）入ってるからもっと延びてもいいのかな。ってずっと思ってたけど、ワールドカップで実際にやってみて、その反応がねいろいろ出たんで、その話ものちのちしてみようかなと。

Tommy:
Which is great. But I still feel like they guess on a lot of the things. So usually it's about 30 seconds for a substitution or a minute for a goal, but they still don't actually properly calculate it. It's still a guess, right? The referee doesn't actually look at their watch and say, "okay, it's been 44 seconds since they scored the goal. I'm going to add that on."

It's very rough. It's very imprecise to use that word we used earlier.

Tomo:
確かにあそこだからグレーなところが多くて、何か例えばさホームチームが負けてたら3分のところ5分になってる気がするし、ホームチーム勝っていたら5分のところが4分に減ってるようなところもあるから、今まで結構グレーなところだったなっていうのはね、思いますよね。

Tommy:
That's right. So yeah, it really is up to the referee and how they want to interpret the time.

Tomo:
ね、プレミアに観戦に行っていいなと思うシーンは、フォースオフィシャルが、あと何分ですと出す瞬間に、もう1回盛り上がる。カモーン！みたいな。

Tommy:
Or you hear, "oh nooo!" if you are winning.

Tomo:
そうそう。あれは、結構面白い時間かな。

Tommy:
The Athletic recently posted an article talking about the merits and demerits of any change to the current laws around the timing of the match, the length of a match. In that article, they argue that having the clock stop, as this new trial would do, would give players the ability to slow the game down even more, which would result in less entertainment.

Tomo:
それね聞いたけど、ちょっとどういう感じなんだろうなと思った。60分にして時間を止めながらプレーすると、エンタメのレベルがなにか下がってしまうってことだよね？

Tommy:
So I was kind of confused when I read it first too and I thought about it a little more. Let's say for example, you're winning 2-1 and there's 10 minutes left and the other team is attacking and they look like they may score. You kick the ball out, you get a goal kick, for example, the clock stops, your goal keeper can take what, 2, 3 minutes? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? It doesn't matter, right, because the clock stopped. That will kill the momentum for the other team.

So then that team will not have, they won't be able to keep that pressure up - the entertainment, the last minute goals, maybe they disappear. Things like that is what The Athletic we're talking about. And I think you just have to watch the last five minutes of a basketball game - although still very exciting - the last five minutes of basketball usually takes about half an hour because they're always stopping the clock.

Tomo:
それやっぱあるよね。 試合の流れを変えるために、ベテランの選手がわざと倒れて、時間稼ぎで相手のモメンタム（勢い）みたいなのを一旦シャットダウンしたい。そういった作戦であるから、もし時間止めるシステムにしたら、もっと時間稼ぎをやる人が増えるってことだよね？

Tommy:
And the referee can't do anything about it. The clock stops, there's no problem. Is the referee going to book someone for wasting time when the clock stopped? They're not wasting time because time isn't changing.

Tomo:
確かに。それがなくなるんか、ウエスティング タイムに対するイエローカードが今あるけど、それ自体がなくなるってことだよね。

Tommy:
That's right. So that's what The Athletic says should happen. Don't change the rules. Don't change the timing of the match. Give the referee more power to actually use the yellow cards to stop time wasting.

They said in the article immediately book players. At the first offense for time wasting, give them a yellow card.Don't give them warning. Don't wait. Just give them a booking. The next time they do it, send them off. Don't be scared to send a player off for time wasting, cause it never happens right? Arsenal today, Edison got booked and then I think an Arsenal player got booked as well, but they'll never get a second yellow card.

Tomo:
前半だったよね？うん、思うよ。キーパーは1枚もらっていいと思ってると思う。ゴールキーパーは、イエロー1枚で、2分稼げたらいいかなみたいな...

Tommy:
Exactly yeah, exactly. They never get sent off for it because you know, that would be a very strong ref to do it, but they should be able to do it.

The other one is the six second rule. You know, the goalkeepers have to get rid of the ball within six seconds. Have you ever seen a referee actually give a foul for that?

Tomo:
そのファールを与える、本当に変な審判はいたかもだけど... （プロで）見たことないね。

Tommy:
Yeah, that is one of the ones that annoys me because it's so simple. The referee can just stand there 1 2 3 4 5 6. If you haven't let go of the ball, it's a foul, it's an indirect free kick. Very simple to fix.

Tomo:
計って欲しいんだけど、平均多分10秒以上持ってると思うよ。

Tommy:
Definitely, definitely. There's some up to 30/40 seconds, I'm sure as well at some points.

And then as you mentioned before, setting up free kicks and penalties is probably the one that really takes the most time. Setting up the wall, clearing the penalty box before a penalty. That can take 3 or 4, sometimes 5 minutes and that's never added on properly.

Tomo:
倒れてから選手が審判に文句言うでしょ。文句言ってからセットして、なんかもう1回壁が立つんだけどさ、壁の位置が何かおかしいからもう1回やってくれみたいなことやってると本当に多分二、三分余裕で立ってる気がするんだよねいつもね。

Tommy:
That's right. That's where the referee should get stronger for sure. Book the players for wasting time and then also properly count the time that they need to add on as well.

The Athletic also talks about the variable length of a match. Meaning depending on which teams play, the game will be shorter or longer. For example, between 2020 and 2023 Manchester City games were on average 61 minutes long. But Aston Villa matches were 52 minutes and 45 seconds. Almost 10 minutes difference between two teams.

Tomo:
いろんな国のやつも出てて、スペインのマルカが、ある4試合をこう切り取って測ってみました。みたいのがあって、スペインが一番アクチュアルプレイングタイムが短くて、平均がね51分41秒。一番長かったのは、フランスで56分10秒。 プレミアが54分、セリエAも54分、ブンデスは52分。やっぱり国によっても違うのかなって思うけど、おそらく、いざこざがあってごちゃごちゃ喋ってたり、あとはウェスティンタイムやってたりっていうのが原因だろうと。

もう1個の原因はプレースタイルの違い。相手チームがポゼッションをして、強いチームに対して自分たちがどうやって勝ちたいかというときに、プレー時間をなるべく減らしてプレーしたい。象徴的だったのは、秋田ですね。めっちゃ短くて44分だった。ロングキックのチームで、守って守ってのチームで44分。栃木も45分だったので、何か勝つための戦略としてそれをやっているのかと思います。

Tommy:
The Athletic talked about the Premier League, down to the lower leagues and every league you drop it gets shorter. So in England the Premier League has the most action.

The biggest problem that comes out of changing a match to 60 minutes would mean the referee probably can't keep the time anymore. It's very difficult for a referee to manage the match as well as their watch every time. So you would need an independent timekeeper - someone else in the stadium. But how do you do that at lower league and youth levels? It becomes very difficult to have that. If you've got one referee who's going to count the time? It becomes very difficult. So it's a tough change to make I think.

Tomo:
これね、やろうとしてたっていうのは知ってたけどね、なんかうまくいかなそうだから変えて欲しくないですね。これだから、三つ目のボキャボラリーの言葉のやつですね本当に。

Tommy:
Yeah, before doing this episode I was actually very much in favor of changing it. I thought right now it annoys me how little stoppage time is properly added on and I thought this was one way to fix it. But actually having thought about it, reading through some of The Athletic's arguments, I agree the referee getting stronger is the solution.

Tomo:
うん。審判にもっと力を与えた方が良いサッカーうまく回るんじゃないかってのはね、ちょっと思いますよね。

Tommy:
Yeah. In the Athletic article, there are some other options in the comments from people. One great one - I really like this one: if a player is booked for time wasting, the other team should get the ball. If you've got a goal kick in, you're wasting time, you book the keeper and then, for example, the other team gets a corner

Tomo:
さっき話した2分の話あったじゃん？すごい時間をかけてボール持って、1回イエローもらってたから、もう1回時間かけて置いてる気がするもん。絶対に、2枚目はもうででこないと思ってるから。

Tommy:
Okay, so you can get a second yellow card and also the other team gets either a free kick or a corner. There's two punishments there which would definitely help reduce the wasting of time.

Tomo:
面白いね。スローインとかだとすぐできそうだよね？

Tommy:
Yeah, exactly. That's a very simple one to fix right. And it happens all the time, time wasting with throw ins. I think that's a great solution.

One other comment was to have the fourth official count the stoppage time, not the referee. So the referees still controls everything blows full time and things, but the fourth official is the one that counts when the ball is out.

Tomo:
審判、こうやってさ二つ時計つけてるじゃん？いや、あれ間違えると思う僕だったら、どっちがどっちだっけ？みたいな。

Tommy:
Possibly. But if the fourth official does that - the fourth official doesn't do much really. They didn't get shattered at all match. They hold up the signs...

Tomo:
静かにしてくださいっていう担当だよね。あと文句言われる係みたいになってる。

Tommy:
Exactly, yeah. So I think that could work potentially. I don't think it's necessary but it could help a little bit.

Another comment was to use a mixture of everything. So properly enforce the laws with the referee; bookings for time wasting and things. But then stop the clock for major things.

So if a player is injured for, let's say a broken leg or concussion or something like that. Stop the clock, stop the clock after goals, because we know it's going to be two or three minutes wasted potentially. Stop the clock when the VAR checks come in because again, that could be 5, 6, 7 minutes easily. So I think that's also not a bad idea.

Tomo:
VARのときは時間止めるっていうのはねこれはありな気がするけどね。Jリーグが開幕するんだけど、VARのラインが2Dじゃなくて3Dラインになるらしいの。3Dラインになると、時間かかりますって言ってた。判定まで時間が長くなるんじゃないかな？

Tommy:
Isn't 3D supposed to make it faster?

Tomo:
違うらしい。正確性を優先するから、判定をするために3D使って、それを使うと時間がよりかかります。って言ってるから。去年より待つ時間が長くなる気がしますけどね。

Tommy:
The World Cup was quicker though?

Tomo:
プレミアも早くなってるよね?

Tommy:
Yeah. That seems backwards...

Tomo:
早くできるんだって早くしてくれよって思うけど...

Tommy:
Which is better, taking longer or...? I guess being accurate is better, but still...

So that's timing of football. There's actually quite a lot to think about really when it's just a clock but actually there's a few merits and demerits for both ways of thinking about it. I changed my opinion after researching a little bit on this.

Tomo:
面白かったね。なんか今日、本当はさフリーチャットのつもりで来たから、ガッツリリサーチしてきたね？トミ〜ね。

Tommy:
Yeah, sorry!

Tomo:
いやいや。大丈夫大丈夫。しっかりやってると思って！

Tommy:
Yeah, this article was great. The Athletic, again, as always, they put a lot of detail in there.

Tomo:
良かったですね。ぜひとも、アスレティック！僕も登録してるんですけど、1年間で毎月100何十円とかで読めるんで、英語の練習になると思います。ぜひとも！一番いいんじゃないかな今。英語を勉強するために読むニュースウェブサイト、サッカーニュースサイトとしても非常によくできてるので、おすすめしております。

Tommy:
We received another bunch of comments this week. So thank you very much to everyone who wrote in again, some really lovely, very motivating comments. Thank you very much. But lately we've been reading them out and it feels a little bit weird to read - I don't know if you feel the same...

Tomo:
ずっと褒められたとね。

Tommy:
I want to stop - I love reading and I love the feedback but I want this to be more about you listening. I want to read your questions and your your thoughts, not just praise for us because that's boring I think for everyone. So get in touch if you have any questions or just general comments, not about the show, get in touch. We love to read those out and if you want to send in feedback of course that's still very much welcome.

But we did get one question this week from in one of our comments which was: "who do you think will win the J league this season?" Starting tomorrow of course.

Tomo:
そうですね、うん、なるほど。始まりますね、Jリーグ。セレッソいいじゃないですか？

Tommy:
Yeah. I want to say Cerezo is my prediction to win it, but I always say that for Tottenham and then they finish like 10th.

Tomo:
言わない方が勝つんじゃないかみたいな

Tommy:
Exactly, exactly. So I think Sanfrecce 1, Cerezo 2.

Tomo:
ね。やってみましょうだから、皆さんが予想する、今年のJリーグ優勝チームをぜひとも送ってみてください。あとね、2月中 今年やってみたいことシリーズでもお土産企画を2月までやるって言ってるので、そちらもぜひとも。前の回を聴いていただければ詳しくわかると思いますので、ぜひとも応募ください。

Tommy:
All right, well thank you very much for listening as always. As we just said the J.League starting tomorrow. I am super excited actually to watch it Frontale against Marinos tomorrow night.

Tomo:
楽しみだね、そのゲームから。

Tommy:
Yeah, and then Cerezo on saturday. I'll be at the stadium for that with my new season ticket. I'm really excited to watch. This season is gonna be fun. If you haven't got to a game, I definitely recommend it. The J.League is so much fun. So get along and of course keep an eye out for April 15 because we'll be in Tokyo for a match there too.

Tomo:
イベント、やりますのでね！

Tommy:
Thank you as always for listening. We'll see you again next time.

Tomo:
サッカーと英語Podcastと調べていただけると、僕たちのページがGoogleで上の方に来ると思います。各回の放送回の下の方にコメントできるところがありますので、そちらから皆様からのお便りお待ちしております。それではまた来週です。Bye for now.