During 18 months in Scottish football Ange Postecoglou has barely criticised referees.
As VAR came into Scottish football the Celtic boss declared himself the most ambivalent person in the world. When his side were on the wrong end of a string of penalty decisions Postecoglou’s only complaint was the time that it was taking to come to decisions.
Controversial penalty decisions given against Alexandro Bernabei and Matt O’Riley weren’t followed by an angry outburst but it seems that timekeeping at the World Cup Finals has brought an issue to the fore.
‘Managing the clock’ seems to be an accepted part of the game in Scotland where it can routinely take more than 30 seconds to take a throw in while goalkeepers will push it longer than that to release the ball back into play.
Whatever the level of time-wasting it seems that there will very rarely be more than three or four minutes added on, during the matches in Qatar it almost became common to see 10 minutes added, sometimes the referee would go beyond the additional 10 minutes.
Rather than see extended matches Postecoglou wants to see referees crack down on the time-wasters as he told The Sun:
If we started adding on more time we might have some games that go into the next day! No, I’m not a fan of it. I’d rather the referees just hurried the game up.
That’s where part of the problem lies, especially early in games, when the referees aren’t as strict.
Then all of a sudden, you get to the end of the game and they are hurrying up goalkeepers, hurrying up throw-ins.
You think, ‘Well, do that at the beginning and you’ll get more game-time’. Ultimately, that’s what you want. That’s what supporters want to see, it’s what football is all about.
So rather than having ten minutes added at the end, I would rather refs just hurried people along. A caution or two at the start, players taking liberties will cut it out.
They won’t do it. You’ll still get your traditional two or three minutes of unavoidable extra time.
That’s my frustration. I see it all the time. Opponents will take their time on goal kicks or throw-ins early. Then late in the game, if they are ahead, they are screaming at the ref to hurry the game up.
Last night seven minutes were added at the end of the match at Pittodrie with Willie Collum adding an extra minute on top of that.
Euan Anderson will referee tonight’s match between Celtic and Livingston.
