Matt Maher: In-game adverts are here - the only surprise is it took so long
Sometimes it pays to be careful what you wish for.
Sitting through the snoozefest which was Arsenal and Chelsea’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg on Tuesday night, there were several moments when I wouldn’t have half-minded watching an advert instead.
There seemed so many opportunities to wedge one in too. Perhaps Tuesday was an extreme example, yet every corner or set piece now seems to take so much longer than before.
One particular Chelsea free-kick, with about 10 minutes remaining of a match in which the onus was on them to score, took more than 60 seconds to take. More than enough time, you thought, to sneak in a plug for a Samsung mobile phone, while the referee spoke to the wall and players decided just what they were going to do. As a spectacle, the entire match felt a selection of stoppages, with actual action thin on the ground.
