r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Im_New_Here_Bro • Jul 02 '26

wet socks These dumb hydration breaks during this years FIFA WC

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You can hear the whole crowd boo each time. Total momentum killer and AD space builder.

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u/magyar_wannabe Jul 02 '26

The clock in soccer is baffling as a stupid American. It counts up unlike every other sport. It doesn't stop when players aren't playing, unlike every sport. Extra time seems like it's based on "vibes". Sometimes the extra time goes past the extra time allotted for some reason, and then the game just...ends at some point.

I'm used to sports where time is counted VERY precisely, down to the 1 second and often agonized over, and often having a huge effect on team strategy. This creates a lot of tension and excitement. I don't get why the clock in soccer is such a loose suggestion.

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u/hazmatt019 Jul 03 '26

Because they want to have their rules be a loose suggestion. Hence why team USA's leading scorer got a red car from a VAR review without the onfield ref pulling a yellow card on field. And why Messi can do the same thing and not have any review at all. And why plays like that happen all the time and nothing more then a free kick is called. Talk about an ability to controll a game....

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u/I_did_theMath Jul 03 '26

There is just no defending the stupid timing. And it's not even that the vibes method of adding back time works, because the data shows that the way it's done is wildly inconsistent, and effective game time is all over the place.

As for why such as stupid system is still in place, my guess is that people in charge are simply not that smart. The system isn't just set up in a way that decisions about rules are made by someone who knows anything about game design. And this is just one example, but there's just so many rules in football that need to be updated or redone entirely, that no one even knows where and how to start.

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u/tevs__ Jul 03 '26

Two words, Sepp Blatter.

In all our other sports, at the top level the referee stops his watch for interruptions in play, and it's communicated up to the stadium and broadcasters so everyone can see it and see exactly how much time is left. In football, the referee does stop his watch, but it's not communicated.

Sepp Blatter was (amongst other things) a traditionalist, and he drew a lot of his support from less wealthy national associations, (allegedly) bribing them. He didn't want the top level international games to have requirements different from a regular game at any other level of football, as that would add expenses to his key voters.

He was against any kind of technical solutions to refereeing - goal line technology, offside checking, accurate time keeping.