Wednesday 20 May 2026

Maybe Arsenal de Sarandi?

 

Garber needs to go!!!! He's ruining the game!!!!!

NEW: MLS has had preliminary discussions with IFAB about potentially trialing the use of a stopped clock during matches, a potentially fundamental, massive change to the laws of the game.

I have more on the Guardian, w/@MattHughesMedia:https://t.co/jBjYe9DrEk

— Pablo Iglesias Maurer (@MLSist) May 20, 2026

Some "fans" out there right now.

 

No.

 

I mean it would eliminate the need for extra time wouldn't it...don't people always complain about how it seems to be arbitrarily given? I assume not every single foul would stop the clock, just after goals and long stoppages in play but who knows.

 

Yep. They got relegated to Primera B, which is the third level.

Barracas Central have been playing the same role Arsenal had previously. Similarly, Barracas are the pet club of the AFA's president and the team has done relatively well recently despite having few fans. Barracas are playing this year's Copa Sudamericana, which Arsenal won in 2007.

 

They stopped the clock back in the NASL days when trainers had to come onto the pitch to help injured players and TBH I wouldn't have a problem if they did that today. I don't remember if they stopped time when subs were made.

 

I've never understood the appeal of not knowing when the game will end.

 

Arsenal de Sarandi from Argentina?

 

Stopping the clock every time the ref blows the whistle would cut way down on time wasting nonsense. Would also cut down on coaches and fans having conniption fits because of how much or how little stoppage time the ref decided to add. Stoppage time ends up feeling overly subjective. It's always a guessing game as to how long the ref will allow the game to go on.

 

It's insane how many people dedicate a large chunk of their time and energy to hating MLS. Like, the Reddit dedicated to the league loses its mind at something or another on a daily basis.

The practice of having the clock run during long delays, such as those caused by injuries or VAR, is blatantly pretty silly. It leads to completely unnecessary consternation over how much time should be added. Beyond that, stopping the clock for other situations gets trickier and more problematic. Finding the right approach is tricky, but worth pursuing in my opinion.

I understand concern about commercials given what FIFA is doing with "cooling breaks", but I don't think we should automatically assume change is bad. Sometimes change is just fixing a dumb practice.

 

Under current rules, time is not supposed to be added for every whistled stop of play. A half would last 70 minutes or more real time if it did.

 

MLS did it 1996-99 and a big problem was that it was not constistently applied. A player would be down injured, staff would come check on him, and sometimes the fans had to chant "stop the clock" to get the ref to remember to signal for it. Same for subs and goals, it dependent if the ref remembered to do the "stop time" signal.

There was also the issue of time-wasting. Under standard timekeeping, the ref can silently take wasted time to account and add it on. When the scoreboard clock was official, players would intentionally waste time and maybe the ref would yell at the players and even give a yellow card, but there was no way to add those seconds back.

 

I would just have an extra time clock on the scoreboard instead of stopping the clock. Just let the fans see what the ref is doing in real time. It would give fans a better reason to boo the ref in real time.

 

I remember there being an out of time clock that counted down, but I also remember the crowd being confused when the game didn't end when the clock hit zero. MLS clock rules were weird.

 

It is a stupid goal. You will never get there. There can always be stoppage in stoppage.