MLS lobbying Ifab to explore stopping clock for pauses in play

• Clock would stop for injuries, substitutions and set pieces

• MLS previously used a stopping clock from 1996-1999

• Ifab last debated a stopping clock in 2017

Major League Soccer has had discussions with the International Football Association Board, global football’s rule making body, about trialing the use of a stopped clock in matches.

A continuously running clock that does not stop for fouls, set pieces, injuries and the like is foundational to the way time has been kept in the sport almost from its inception. However, the use of a clock that stops is commonplace in other American sports like basketball and gridiron football. It was even briefly used in MLS itself from its 1996 founding until the end of the 1999 season, and is still used in US college soccer.

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