Blackpool boss Michael Appleton provides alternative solution to World Cup’s longer stoppage time

Officials at the World Cup were advised to strictly measure the time and add it at the end of the half in order to increase effective playing time.

It resulted in some unusual figures being held up by fourth officials.

The most extreme example came in England’s 6-2 group win over Iran, where 14 minutes were added on at the end of the first-half and a further 10 at the end of the second.

Former official Pierluigi Collina, who now chairs FIFA’s referees’ committee, recently explained: “If you want more active time, we need to be ready to see this kind of additional time given.

“Think of a match with three goals scored. A celebration normally takes one, one and a half minutes, so with three goals scored, you lose five or six minutes.”

But rather than see games in the EFL regularly go over 100 minutes, Appleton believes there is a better way of clamping down on time wasting.

He The Gazette: “I’d rather see it go the other way where if people are wasting time then just give them a yellow card and if they do it twice send them off.

“I’m in that mindset rather than worrying about games going 98 minutes or 100 minutes or so.

“If we’re a little bit braver and we get a better understanding of people taking the mick then just book them and I’m sure we’ll get it out of the game pretty quickly.”