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Football's law makers are said to be focusing their attention on discussing ways to combat time wasting, with a ban on injury time substitutions being on the cards.

The issue of time wasting was raised after a recent Premier League match between Cardiff and Burnley only saw 42 minutes worth of on-field action, which was the shortest amount of actual playing time in a top-flight fixture since 2013. This season, the ball has been in play for an average of 55 minutes in the Premier League.

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According to the Daily Mail, the International FA Board (IFAB) are discussing a number of options in order to reduce time wasting, which includes the banning of injury time substitutions - a tactic which is often deployed by managers to help run down the clock in the dying moments of a match.

This is not the only proposal, as the possibility of making players walk to the nearest touchline rather than to the dugout when being substituted is also being weighed up, alongside the idea for the referee to stop his watch from the time a throw-in, corner or goalkick is conceded until it is actually taken.

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The IFAB are holding their annual meeting in March, so nothing will finalised until that date and, if any rules are agreed upon, they won't be put in to place until next season at least.

A source for the IFAB told the Times earlier this month: "We all want to crack down on major time-wasting and increase playing time but the fundamental question is how we do it."