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Former US men’s national team midfielder Benny Feilhaber was watching a Brazilian Serie A game on television recently when it struck him how frustrating the late stages of the game were for viewers.
Botafogo, Feilhaber’s all-time favorite Brazilian-born team, currently sits atop the table and is defending a one-goal lead over América Mineiro. As America began to gain momentum, the game turned into what it often does in those situations: the art of wasting time.
“For me, this is a fact: I think we have a problem in football today with wasting time,” Feilhaber said. “This happens everywhere. We see it everywhere, in the MLS, everywhere. People who stretch or kill the clock because they know it doesn’t turn back all the time or can affect the other team’s tempo or momentum. If you want to make it more fun, you have to fix it and find a solution.”
The frustration for Feilhaber was amplified, in part, because he knows the problem can be addressed. As coach of MLS Next Pro’s Sporting Kansas City II, Feilhaber saw the effectiveness of the league’s off-field handling rule, which was implemented last summer. The rule states that “if the referee stops play because of a possible injury to the player, the player may be asked to leave the field of play for three minutes.”
The rule has built-in “exceptions” for things like head injuries, bleeding, cardiac incidents or serious injuries, or tackles that result in a red or yellow card, but the goal is simple: stop time-wasting tactics.
The results after a season and a half of implementation were clear and eye-opening: an 80% reduction in extended outages due to field treatment.
Before the rule was implemented, players were brought down due to potential injury for 15 seconds longer, an average of six times per MLS Next Pro game, including injuries that would have been subject to exceptions to the rule. With the off-field treatment rule in place, that number was reduced to 1.21 incidents per game – 1.01 per game were “exceptions” to the rule (injuries that required a stoppage but did not trigger the three-minute waiting period) and only 0.20 per game were cases when the player had to stay off the field for three minutes.
For those involved in the game, the change was both visible and not. The game itself didn’t seem to break too much from the rule, but the flow of the game was noticeably better. While the league is working with a data provider to measure effective playing time this season, several people who coached or worked in the league said to the naked eye that the difference was noticeable.
“Based on the statistics and what I’ve seen, yes, I 100 percent believe it has had a positive effect on the game with these rules,” Feilhaber said. “In general, in our league I have seen a significant improvement in terms of time loss. There’s just no time to waste.”
Austin FC II defeated Columbus Crew 2 in the MLS Next Pro Championship match. The league was formed as a way to increase development opportunities for young players and expand MLS’ footprint in space, while forming MLS Next, its youth academy division. But the league’s ability to serve as a guinea pig for rule changes has proven extremely valuable.
League leadership has been deliberate in their approach to testing the new rule changes and competition structures, and they have found some success – the outfield handling rule and the timed substitution rule, which gives players only 10 seconds to leave the field of play. two examples – that can contribute to more effective playing time, which is a key objective for leagues around the world.
The timed substitution rule requires that if a player does not come off the court within those 10 seconds, then the player waiting to come on must wait until the first stoppage after a 60-second stoppage period. In more than 3,150 substitutions this season, there were only 10 violations. In the playoffs, there were zero. It effectively eliminated players using substitutions to waste time.
Ali Curtis, senior vice president of competition and operations for MLS Next Pro, led the development of these rule changes. Curtis, a former sporting director at both the New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC, said it was a months-long process involving stakeholders across the league.
“We knew we wanted to be really progressive in terms of innovation in the field,” Curtis said. “But at the same time we didn’t want to change the game, we wanted to evolve it.”
Representatives from 11 different MLS Next Pro clubs engaged in talks as part of a committee that ultimately introduced the rule changes. Curtis also spoke to national team coaches, FIFA officials and referee officials, including former PRO executive Howard Webb, who left for the Premier League last summer, and current PRO general manager, Mark Geiger. Notably, the Premier League introduced a similar “on-field treatment” rule this season, although players are only required to stay out for 30 seconds rather than three minutes.
The meetings were important in that they had to look for some of the unintended consequences that a new rule might create. For example, there was concern that the on-field handling rule could lead to players attacking opponents in games in which they are behind in order to potentially try to take advantage of a player if that player has to sit down for a long period. of time. This, in part, led to an exception to the rule for yellow or red card fouls.
“I’ve been in a lot of meeting rooms at all different levels, these conversations involving new rules have been the most challenging I’ve ever experienced,” Curtis said. “There is an excitement that goes along with breaking tradition, sometimes it takes time. It’s been complicated in that regard, getting people to understand how to evolve and what the right steps are to do that. We do not want to propose rules for the sake of change. We want to be thoughtful and we want them to have an impact.”
Coaches, players and executives around the league saw an almost immediate change in behavior. Players were jumping faster, or walking off the field themselves to receive treatment. (If a player leaves the field on his own to receive treatment, he may return at the referee’s discretion, without a three-minute waiting period.)
Columbus Crew 2 general manager Corey Wray recalled an incident where a Columbus player had to serve a three-minute penalty. Wray asked the player after the game what happened. The player said he had a cramp but was near the middle of the field. He considered leaving the entire field out, but decided to just stay down.
As ludicrous as the image of a player rolling off the field may be, the incident showed that the rule was successful in changing the way a player thought about an injury – ‘How can I get up and walk off the field and not slow down the game? ‘ — but also that there are still things that need to be fixed and addressed within the rule, a natural part of the process.
“Every week we asked, ‘What’s the reaction?’ We were talking to (the cast) and the biggest concerns were on the medical and performance side. Are we taking care of the players and what’s good for them,” Wray said. This is where the referees are a big factor, asking: ‘Are you hurt?’ and ‘Can I help you?’ If you’re injured, it keeps the players safe. It’s bad enough to stay down. That thought process was what we were trying to do down to influence the situation or are you staying down because you can’t leave?”
The rule changes have been so successful, there’s a chance we’ll see them in MLS next season. That, however, will require more approval through the league’s product strategy committee and approval from the board of governors. These conversations, as Curtis said, are not easy. Still, the data is compelling, and it could mean the change that started in MLS Next Pro finds its way to the bigger leagues soon.
“At the end of the day, we want to see more football,” Curtis said. “And that’s been something that’s been a real, real bright spot.”
(Photo: Andrew Katsampes/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
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