Since the FIFA World Cup in Qatar kick-started, a total of 64 minutes has been added after 90 minutes, something which is unusual in football globally.
The first game of the World Cup which was between the host nation and Qatar had 14 minutes of extra time in the first half and almost 10 minutes in the second half, depicting a total of 24 minutes of additional time.
The game between Iran and England which produced 8 goals lingered until 117 minutes. Although there were reasons for such an extreme time addition during the match. There was injury call time wastage and of course VAR decisions and checks.
Senegal against the Dutch had 16 minutes of added time, while the USA vs Wales witnessed 16 minutes of extra time.
Reasons why these huge minutes have been added to every game since the start of the Wold, are still not unclear, but there has been a message from the former Italian referee Pierluigi Collina who stated explicitly that matches during the World Cup will witness unusual added minutes after full time.
“We want to avoid matches with just 42, 43and, 44 minutes of effective playing time. So, the time taken by substitutions, penalties, celebrations, medical care or VAR will have to be compensated.”
“Celebrations might last one or one and a half minutes,’ he said. “It’s easy to lose three, four or five minutes, and this has to be compensated at the end.
“We want to avoid matches lasting for 40-45 minutes of active play. This is unacceptable.”
“What we already did in Russia was to more accurately calculate the time to be compensated. We told everybody to not be surprised if they see the fourth official raising the electronic board with a big number on it, six, seven or eight minutes.
“If you want more active time, we need to be ready to see this kind of additional time given. Think of a match with three goals scored. A celebration normally takes one and a half minutes, so with three goals scored, you lose five or six minutes.
“What we want to do is accurately calculate the added time at the end of each half. It can be the fourth official to do that, we were successful in Russia and we expect the same in Qatar.”
