Premier League urged to bring in FIFA's World Cup rule with extra caveat

Former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein has urged FIFA referees' boss Pierluigi Collina to introduce "real time" into football.

Dein has been championing the plan to try and cut down on time wasting and increase the amount of time that the ball is in play. Collina met with former FA executive Dein in Doha last week to discuss his ideas which include taking time keeping out of the referees' hands.

Dein would be in favour of an independent time keeper and the clock would be stopped each time the ball goes out of play or there is a foul or stoppage.

FIFA did make a very deliberate push in the World Cup to increase the amount of "in play" time by urging referees to add extra minutes of stoppage time during games.

Even the World Cup final had eight and seven minutes of stoppage time while there is an unofficial target in the Premier League to hit the 61 minute mark of the ball being in play during games.

Dein's point is about how much time is lost at stoppages considering he says it takes an average of ten seconds to score a goal with a quick counter attack from one end to another. Dein said: "I'm on a campaign driving the game forward regarding pure time time-keeping. It takes 10 seconds to score a goal."

Dein also believes the one-city format of the World Cup was a "great success" but will never be done again. Dein said: "Selfishly, I'd say London can do it. We've got the training grounds. But we'll never see it again.

"You'll see in the States in 2026 it will be in three different countries and it will be a different experience, this has been a unique experience and all credit to the supreme committee for delivery and legacy.

"Qatar has won a lot of friends because of this World Cup and the way it has been handled. The stadiums have been sensational, Lusail, Al Thumama, it will be a shame if they get taken down but I don't know how they will be used. It's a pity.

"Architecturally, they're really beautiful. Everybody got to the stadia on time, the games have kicked off on time, the refereeing overall's been very good, VAR largely been fine, it's been a very successful tournament.

"If you ask the fans and you ask the players if they enjoyed it, yes they have. And we have to ask ourselves, what is football without fans? The fans haven't had to travel.

"You take the coming World Cup in three countries or when we were in Brazil, we were in Rio one day, Manaus the other, then Sao Paulo and you're spending five hours travelling. Here, we've had an hour maximum.

"This has been a great World, a unique World Cup, we've never seen it before, we'll never see it again. It's been a privilege to be here."