MLS wants to change the Laws of the Game to bring back a rule not seen since 1999

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Tom Weber | Writer

Multilingual sports writer who specialises in European football and American soccer.

Major League Soccer has held talks with the International Football Association Board about bringing back a stopped clock for matches.

The Guardian reports that preliminary discussions between MLS and IFAB have centred around the topic of halting the match clock for stoppages such as set pieces, substitutions and injuries.

MLS previously used a stopped clock in the earliest years of its existence when the idea of "Americanising" football was still prevalent. The league experimented with rules that differed from the traditional Laws of the Game to make the game more appealing to an American audience.

In addition to a stopped clock, which is widespread in American sports, MLS used 35-yard shootouts to determine the winner if games ended tied in regular time. The clock in MLS also used to count down rather than up.

These experiments were stopped in 1999 when MLS decided that, in order to boost its credibility and global standing, it had to bring its rules in line with the Laws of the Game. However, the idea of stopping the clock never went away.

MLS wants to bring back a stopped clock

With IFAB constantly looking for ways to combat time-wasting and to maximise the actual football being played, a stopped clock was already previously discussed by the rules-making body.

Ultimately, though, the idea was shelved in 2017 due to various concerns, ranging from the uncertainty it would create for broadcasters to the "sanctity" of the 90-minute match.

With more and more anti-time-wasting measures being trialled and implemented in recent years, MLS has been keen to reopen the debate surrounding a stopped clock. The league, of course, has been at the forefront when it comes to testing new rules for IFAB.

It was one of the first leagues to implement VAR back in the late 2010s after it was tested in USL, and several amendments aimed at reducing the time wasted on substitutions and injuries were recently made to the Laws after being trialled in MLS.

Senior figures at MLS confirmed to the outlet that "exploratory" discussions with IFAB have indeed taken place. However, it is currently believed to be unlikely that a stopped clock will return anytime soon.

"[IFAB] allows and introduces trials if there is wide interest in a topic," a source is quoted as saying in the article. "This one has very little support at the moment."

Nevertheless, MLS clearly believes that it is a topic worth discussing. The league's vice-president of competition, Paul Grafer, says that it is "one thing that we often talk about."

Grafer adds that the league could submit a formal proposal to trial a stopped clock in MLS Next Pro, which is the "usual operating procedure" before MLS itself tests new rules.

The development division is "the perfect incubator for those types of opportunities," Grafer noted. "We’d then look at the data and see if it’s good for the game."

Still, the chances of a stopped clock returning look slim at this moment.