Possession (sports) determined by several methods, including a coin flip (American football and cricket), home team status (baseball), or by giving the teams an equal opportunity to physically take possession; this may be called a dropped-ball (association football), a ball-up (Australian rules football), a jump ball (basketball), or a face-off (hockey). In some timed sports, the team with possession may try to "run time off the clock" by keeping the ball and not attempting to score, in order to deny the opposing team possession. A shot clock speeds gameplay by requiring teams to attempt to score within a certain period of time
Ball possession Ball possession Ball possession is the amount of time a team possesses the ball during a game of football. Possession is usually expressed as a percentage (for example, 60% for team A, 40% for team B). Historically, Dutch clubs (especially Ajax) were famous for dominating ball possession, but more recently Barcelona of La Liga became the best in maintaining ball possession; Germany's Bayern Munich came out second. However, after the arrival of Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich, the team is considered to dominate possession more than Barcelona, which they did during the semi-final of the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League. Xavi