---
layout: post
syndicate: true
date: 2026-06-17 20:41
title: Embracing the quartering of football
type: blog
---

During the World Cup all games adopted hydration breaks, all games regardless of the weather in order to make it fair.

There is quite a bit of discourse around the ruining of the game and the fact they are largely used as tactical timeouts.

I think we should embrace the game to two halves moving to a game of four quarters but there needs to be more adaptations.

1. Games should have a fixed "in play" time. Games are 90 minutes plus stoppages at the referee's discretion. But the ball in play is much nearer to 50 minutes on average. So adopt a fixed "in play time of 60 minutes" so fans get more football and the time wasted at throw-ins and free-kicks, subs and celebrations don't take away from the game. This would end time-wasting As no advantage is gained.
2. Substitutions typically end up at 60 minutes of a 90 minute game, giving enough time for players to impact the game, whilst the players on the pitch have time to implement the game plan and have a chance after the half time to take on new information. With the above changes subs could be restricted to the breaks and not interrupt open play causing another stoppage. This would need to be for tactical subs, player injuries causing a change should continue as normal.
3. In order to manage the clock effectively, an independent timekeeper is needed at every game. A 5th official could do this given access to video assistance. Clocks will need to be reset back to the moment an incident happened rather than for example a delayed offside flag. This works effectively in American football.

This above changes would improve player welfare by adjusting the game to more like interval training. This is important given the increase in matches being played per season at club and international level.