Don't Play - Delay by Matt Riley: 2014

Matt Riley's article on the 'AFC 60: Don't Delay - Play' campaign from June, 2014.

Don't Play - Delay: Is Your Thai Premier League Game Half Full or Half Empty?
by Matt Riley

Over the last six Suphanburi FC matches I have been given the data for Actual Playing Time from their video analyst Fabio Eidelwein. Whilst I have to declare an interest in working for the club, most fans would agree they are a team that likes to play football and are no worse than many when it comes to stretcher time outs and snipers from the stands. It was pretty obvious that little football is played in ninety minutes of a Thai Premier League game, but the raw numbers make pretty depressing reading.

In only two of the last six games (against Sisaket and Army United) has the Actual Playing Time crept over forty five minutes. The average playing time as measured by the AFC for games in their jurisdiction is fifty two minutes. That figure is almost fifteen percent above what we have witnessed in our data so far and, comparing it to other world leagues, it gets even worse. The Bundesliga and La Liga play an average sixty one, the English Premier League sixty two and Serie A for sixty five minutes. So an average Italian game plays for an astonishing twenty three more minutes than the game between Bangkok United and Suphanburi on May 28th.

This data may not reflect other teams, but I would be very surprised if the numbers are any different across the league. Of course we don't know as the FAT have not embraced (or even recognised) the "AFC 60: Don't Delay - Play" campaign. What suggests to me that the information we have is the rule rather than the exception is that the key targets identified by the AFC as diminishing Actual Playing Time read like a DNA printout of any given Thai game.

The campaign targets eight key actions to reduce. Delaying the ball coming back on the pitch has improved in Thailand, mainly because there are plenty of other more effective ways for elective timeouts. Leaving the pitch slowly is one of the favourites and harks back to the late Michael Jackson's "moonwalk," where the legs seem to be walking, but the player is moving in reverse. The third key AFC target is a staple of Thai games. Kicking the ball away is rarely punished (or noticed) by officials but is a favoured way to slice another thirty seconds from an already dwindling match time.

Then comes my personal favourite in Thailand; obstructing opponents at set pieces. Standing over (or on) the ball when a free kick is given against you is perfectly acceptable. What is definitely not allowed is for the person given the free kick to take it quickly or, heaven forbid, kick it at the opposition player standing ten millimetres from the ball.

At this point of depressing melodrama I am always easy to spot in the crowd: just look for the billowing steam that has just left my ears. But getting a free kick is also an open invitation to flout the next AFC target. Why let your opposition waste time, when you can do it much more effectively when you have been given the free kick? Conversations, changes of plan and general standing around are tolerated and indeed become part of the accepted ritual.

If you won a free kick, you should be able to use it for a breather, after all. If the AFC decide to target Thai games, good luck with their next target of stamping out feigned injuries. On a weekly basis players go down with broken arms, legs (and often both) but receive miraculous recovery thanks to a five minute game delay. The final AFC headline target of prolonged goal celebrations seem no worse than other countries, with only the bizarre Muang Thong Circle of People Putting Out a Small Fire standing out as overlong.

Looking on the bright side, the game between Sisaket and Suphanburi clocked up fifty two minutes playing time, but for home teams TOT and SCG Muang Thong to clock up nineteen and twenty one minutes of APT respectively in their games against Suphanburi is frightening. Now there is a system in place to increase the amount of play in a game there is only one more ingredient needed. The will to change from clubs, fans and players has to be consistent. Otherwise, we will all continue to receive short measures and Thai football will never get out of its own half.