FORMER Premier League referee Mark Clatternburg wants football matches to be shrunk to ONE HOUR long.
And instead of one continuous clock for 90 minutes, Clattenburg wants time to be stopped whenever the game itself comes to a halt.
Manchester City players and fans were left fuming on Wednesday night when Italian referee Daniele Orsato blew for full-time against Real Madrid 10 seconds early.
There was also anger on City's behalf that Orsato only added three minutes of stoppage time at the end of extra time – despite Real Madrid's blatant time-wasting.
And Clattenburg, 47, reckons a 60-minute match, with a stop-clock, could be a solution to time-wasting in the game.
Writing for the Daily Mail, he said: "I think there's a solution to all of this and that's 60-minute matches with a stop-clock – an idea which Pierluigi Collina, FIFA and IFAB are currently looking at.
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"It works in basketball and it could work in football, too.
"The clock is paused when the ball goes out of play, for example, or there's an injury causing a delay, or a referee is issuing a yellow card and dishing out a talking-to.
"That way, every game would last the same length and we'd get rid of this controversy."
Clattenburg went on to point out that the average time the ball has been in play in the Premier League this season has been 55mins 03secs.
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Therefore, on average, a 60-minute clock would guarantee an extra five minutes of match action in the Prem and prevent fixtures from lasting for different lengths of time.
Clattenburg continued: "The 60-minute clock would stop that and guarantee paying punters that they at least get to see an hour of football on the pitch.
"It's a conversation that our sport should be having, and one which would mean the debate over Daniele Orsato's three minutes at the end of extra time wouldn't need to be had in the aftermath of City's collapse in Madrid."
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