In the past, there have been rumblings of football matches being shortened from their traditional 90-minute length to appeal to a younger generation, one used to digesting content quickly.
But, at the 2022 World Cup, audiences are experiencing games which have just got longer – a lot longer.
We’ve seen fourth officials raising their electronic boards at the end of halves throughout games in Qatar signaling well over the usual four or five minutes.
Seven or eight minutes often seems to be the minimum. On a few occasions already, over 10 minutes have been added on.
It has resulted in just one of the opening eight games of the tournament finishing in less that 100 minutes.
In fact, according to stats website Opta, the five single halves with the most stoppage time in a single World Cup match, since records began in 1966, were all on Monday and Tuesday at the 2022 World Cup.
England’s 6-2 win over Iran totaled 117 minutes and 16 seconds, with 14 minutes and eight seconds added at the end of the first half and 13 minutes and eight seconds added on at the end of the second.
As a result, Mehdi Taremi’s penalty with 102 minutes and 30 seconds on the clock was the latest scored by any side in a World Cup since 1966.
Fourteen minutes and 34 seconds were added onto the 1-1 draw between Wales’ and United States Men’s National Team, 12 minutes and 49 seconds were added on to the Netherlands’ 2-0 victory over Senegal and 10 minutes and 18 seconds were added to Ecuador’s 2-0 win over host Qatar in the opening match of the tournament.
Some of the added time has been down to lengthy injury breaks.
Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand suffered a serious concussion in the team’s match against England while Saudi Arabia defender Yasser al-Shahrani was injured by a knee from his own goalkeeper, Mohammed al-Owais, against Argentina.
Why there is so much stoppage time at the 2022 World Cup
By Ben Morse, CNN
DOHA, QATAR - NOVEMBER 21: The scoreboard screen shows an additional 14 minutes of added time at the end of the 1st half during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group B match between England and IR Iran at Khalifa International Stadium on November 21, 2022 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
Beiranvand lies injured during Iran's game against England.
However, the elongated games are part of a move by FIFA, the sport’s governing body, to fight against perceived time wasting and to reclaim time lost for goal celebrations, video assistant referee (VAR) reviews and substitutions.
Pierluigi Collina, famed former referee and the current chairman of FIFA’s referees committee, explained before the start of the tournament that fans should expect games exceeding 100 minutes, with added time over “seven or eight minutes.”
“This is nothing new,” Collina said at a media conference. “(At the last World Cup) in Russia, it became quite normal for the fourth official to show the board with seven, eight, nine minutes on it.
Physiotherapist Matt Konopinski also warned that the increase in the amount of added time, on top of “an acute demand in terms of games and games density,” could lead to more player injuries.
“This will include interventions such as nutritional strategies, hydration strategies, therapeutic and technological advances in terms of recovery management. Examples would include soft tissue, swimming pools and ice chambers.”
Injury concerns aside, brace yourself for a lot more World Cup minutes until the tournament concludes on December 18.
