Why does stoppage time still exist? – Part 1

I will start by defining this for anyone who does not know what it is. Stoppage, Injury or added time is the time added on by the referee at the end of each half. It is supposed to compensate for things like the ball going out of play, the time it takes to set up set-piece situations, substitutions and injuries. Not to be confused with “Extra time”. Extra time is used in cup competitions and adds an additional 2 halves of 15 minutes each to the end of a game if it cannot be decided in regulation.

Anyways back to the point. Why do we still have stoppage time? In an age where there was no stopwatches and the referee had to estimate how much time was left it makes sense. I wouldn’t expect a referee without a stopwatch to be able to correctly estimate and account for stoppages in play. However, we live in the present day. Most people have a watch that has a stopwatch function, and if they don’t they more than likely have a phone that can do it. Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that I want referees to run around with a phone instead of watch, that’s not what I am saying.

But referees should have a stopwatch on their wrist if not one in their pocket (if they are old school). Why not whenever the ball goes out of play, or play is stopped the clock stops too. If we are going to introduce large changes such as Goal Line Tech and VAR in order to achieve the correct result why is no one talking about stoppage time?

These are of course just my opinions and my thoughts that I have had about football Let me know what you think by commenting or messaging me one way or another