I think it's a terrible idea. It will create confusion, move the elite sport even further away from grassroots football, make games last much longer (why hurry to take a free kick, ever?), make the game more Americanised and away from its origins, cause lengthy breaks in the game, and make the game more appealing to television viewers and less appealing for live crowds (as the tv viewers will have greater access to information on timing data).
For all these reasons, I expect it to be adopted, very soon.
You're simply making game lengths 60mins and stopping the clock if the ball goes out of play. How will it create confusion? Ball in play, clock ticks on, ball out of play, clock stops. I think a 5yr old could grasp that concept.
Game length could be longer but could also be shorter depending on how long the ball is in play for. You'd hurry to take a FK because it could gain you an advantage, no different to how it is now. Same with throws, corners or goal kicks.
Why would it cause lengthy breaks? They're surely less likely as teams who are trying to run down the clock know they now can't. Faking injuries, leaving throws for other players, keepers dicking around swapping sides for goal kicks. It takes all that away. If teams are deliberately doing it to break the momentum of another team, out comes the yellow cards.
Let me exaggerate the point in order to make it. What's to stop a player taking half an hour over a throw, if he has teammates trying to run off injuries?
There are penalties associated with delaying the restart of the game in other sports that have a stopped clock to avoid situations like this. Within reason, for injuries etc.
In football, that might look like surrending your set piece to the other team if you don't restart the play within 30 seconds.
On the flip side, that feeds into your argument that it further separates the elite game from the grassroots.
I'm personally on the fence but I would be interested to see it in action. It's the kind of thing I'd want to see tested in a competition like the Pizza Trophy.
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