ROME: The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) is to lobby FIFA to implement time-outs during World Cup matches in Brazil next year, Italy coach Cesare Prandelli said yesterday.
FIGC is to make the proposal on Thursday in Costa do Sauipe ahead of Friday’s World Cup draw in the same Brazilian town.
“I want to ask them to make two time-outs during the matches so the players can rehydrate,” said Prandelli at a press conference in Rome.
“The are two big problems in Brazil, the same ones we encountered during the Confederations Cup in June: the heat and the humidity which, in certain towns, are worrying.
“If you want to offer a show to the world then you have to allow the players to be in a condition to offer up such a spectacle.”
Prandelli wants an official two-minute time-out to be called at the mid-point of each half to give players the chance to take fluids on board, otherwise he says they will be taking every opportunity at throw-ins and corners to rehydrate, which would upset the flow of games.
Prandelli believes the proposition will find favour with “all those (teams) who were at the Confederations Cup”. AFP
