Time wasting is a hot topic in football right now.
Some of the rules have been tweaked this season to try to crack down on it - most obviously, the newly enforced eight-second rule for goalkeepers and the mandatory 30-second wait on the touchline for any player with a head injury, or who has received any kind of treatment on the pitch.
Expect more changes to come, with the time taken for throw-ins and goal kicks now under FIFA scrutiny and controversial injuries to goalkeepers too.
An unfortunate side-effect of these positive new rules seems to be where a player forced to leave the pitch because of blood on their skin or kit is forced to wait on the touchline, before being waved back on. The Sunderland captain Granit Xhaka was frustrated by this situation in the Wear-Tyne derby against Newcastle on Sunday, along with more than 45,000 Mackems.
At the start of this season, a new 30-second wait was introduced for any player receiving a head injury - to try to give more time for the medical teams to assess if a player is at any risk of concussion - but that isn't what happened with Xhaka.
The referee Peter Bankes told Xhaka to leave the field in injury time to have a cut to his eye attended to, when his side were 1-0 up and being pressured by Newcastle who were seeking an equaliser. The FA rules say "any player bleeding from a wound must leave the field of play. They may not return until the referee or fourth official is satisfied that the bleeding has stopped. An injured player may only return to the field of play after the match has started."
Xhaka voluntarily ran off the pitch. After the bleeding stopped he told the fourth official he was ready to return and the fourth official told the referee.
However, even though blood injuries and injuries to other parts of the body are treated the same by the referee, intuitively, there is a crucial difference between the two: in the case of a player going down with any problem other than a blood or head injury, the referee will ask the player if they require treatment and if they say 'yes', once the physio has left the pitch, the rules say the player must do so too, and wait on the touchline until the referee waves them back on. If the player chooses treatment, they must wait 30 seconds plus on the touchline. That makes sense - it provides a deterrent to time wasting.
The difference when a player has blood on them is that they have no choice about whether they receive treatment - the referee is obliged to make them leave the field, for the safety of others on the pitch.
And so that player is penalised in a similar same way to any player requesting treatment [the mandatory 30-second wait does not apply for blood injuries, but most players will be left on the touchline for more than half a minute before being recalled, because of the circumstances in the match].
Gary Neville, on commentary, called the situation "utter madness" and said "I just do not like it at all."
So why did it take longer than 30 seconds for Xhaka to be waved back on to the pitch? The referee has a list of criteria they are considering, before allowing a player back on to the field of play. They must try to avoid
It is therefore down to these factors, and the judgement of the referee, when that player will be allowed back on to the field of play.
In Xhaka's case, because he didn't receive treatment on the pitch and because his cut wasn't deemed to be a possible concussion, the mandatory 30-second rule did not apply. And so as soon as he told the fourth official he was ready to return, the referee tried to get him back on. Nevertheless, the circumstances of the match and the assessment of that criteria by referee Peter Bankes, meant the Sunderland man waited more than 30 seconds before being allowed to re-join the play anyway.
Fortunately, playing with ten men for a short period didn't cost Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on this occasion, despite the obvious anger in the stands and on the touchline.
With more and more rules in the pipeline to crack down on time wasting, it may well be that, in the future, there are more unintended consequences such as this one, which affect players who are not trying to seek an advantage with a supposed injury.
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