Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Sydney: The Asian Football Confederation's 'Don’t Delay. Play!’ campaign, which was launched last year in a bid to increase Actual Playing Time in AFC matches and competitions, ended with encouraging results as the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 concluded on Saturday.
Before the start of the campaign, the average Actual Playing Time (APT) in all AFC competition was 52 minutes and two seconds, but after the premier event Down Under, the overall average APT now is 54 minutes and 51 seconds, an increase of two minutes and 49 seconds.
This year’s average was calculated during the AFC U-16, U-19, U-22 Championships, AFC Challenge Cup, AFC Women’s Asian Cup and AFC Asian Cup, excluding the final.
The AFC hopes that teams will continue to strive to increase Actual Playing Time in the future.
The following is a breakdown of APTs across the competitions before and after the campaign:
AFC U-16 Championship
2012 edition – 53mins 01sec
2014 edition – 54mins 15secs
Increase – 01min 14secs
AFC U-19 Championship
2012 edition – 53mins 21secs
2014 edition – 55mins 20secs
Increase – 01min 59secs
AFC U-22 Championship
2013 edition – 55mins 01sec
AFC Challenge Cup
2012 edition – 48mins 44secs
2014 edition – 52mins 04secs
Increase – 03mins 20secs
AFC Women's Asian Cup
2010 edition – 48mins 36secs
2014 edition – 57mins 08secs
Increase – 08mins 32secs
AFC Asian Cup
2011 edition – 53mins 25secs
2015 edition (excluding Final) – 55mins 15secs
Increase (excluding Final) – 01min 50secs
Average AFC
Prior to Campaign – 52mins 02secs
Currently – 54mins 51secs
Increase – 02mins 49secs
Photo: WSG