This season’s Premier League is seeing lowest ball-in-play time for 12 YEARS

Playing time in the Premier League this season is the lowest in 12 years, sports mail may reveal, amid growing calls for an overhaul of soccer’s timing system.

The debate over how long the ball is in play has raged in recent years and became a big talking point during the World Cup in Qatar after FIFA urged referees to be stricter with the amount of play. time they add for detentions.

Former FA and Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein has proposed a countdown clock or the introduction of independent timekeeping in a document called ‘Pure Time’ to FIFA referee chiefs, which has been backed by the likes of Jamie Carragher.

Ball-in-play time in the Premier League this season is the lowest total in 12 years.

Brentford’s 4-0 thrashing of Aston Villa in October had the lowest total of this campaign of 43:26

Dein hopes they will at least discuss the issue at an annual meeting of the International Association of Soccer Board scheduled for March in hopes of testing at a tournament.

The time has come for transparency through a countdown clock so the public can see how much time is left. It shouldn’t be a national secret,” Dein told The Times.

I am not saying that the clock should be stopped every time the ball goes out of play, but for those incidents that cause the most delays: goal celebrations, substitutions, penalties, injuries and now VAR control.

Fans are also likely to support Dein’s suggestions, as the average time with the ball in play in the current Premier League campaign is 54 minutes and 49 seconds, according to statistics provided by Opta.

That’s the lowest number since the 20010-11 season, when the average amount of time the ball was in play dropped to just 54 minutes and 16 seconds.

There have also been three games so far in the 2022-23 campaign in which the figure is 45 minutes or less. The lowest ball-in-play time this season of 43:26 was recorded when Aston Villa thrashed Brentford 4-0 at Villa Park in October.

Matches involving Brentford account for five of the six worst Premier League games in terms of playing time, although this includes the Bees’ 5-2 thrashing of Leeds, when there were seven delays due to scoring by goals.

Former FA boss David Dein has led proposals for the introduction of a publicly viewed countdown clock.

Pundit Jamie Carragher seems to have backed calls for a countdown clock in football games

Crystal Palace’s 2-1 win over Leeds in October was the second shortest at 43:46, while the average at Brentford against Leeds was exactly 45 minutes.

Criticism about how long the ball was in play during Arsenal’s 0-0 draw with Newcastle also seems misplaced, as there were 33 games where the figure was lower than that recorded at the Emirates on Tuesday.

The stats shown for previous seasons represent a full campaign and we’re not even halfway through the current season, but the numbers are likely to increase calls for a change.