Explained: why is there so much stoppage time at the Fifa World Cup?

It’s been a Fifa World Cup of many firsts in Qatar. The first to be held in the Middle East, first to take place out of season in the northern hemisphere’s winter months, and first to have five permitted substitutions allowed instead of the previous three.

There’s also another new “theme” that is “developing” in the early games of this World Cup, said Tom Mallows on BBC Sport. “Stoppage time – and lots of it.”

When England took on Iran in group B on Monday, there were an “astonishing” 27 extra minutes played across both halves, this was partly because of VAR delays and an injury to Iran keeper Alireza Beiranvand, said Will Pickworth in the Daily Mail. This meant the game lasted “117 minutes in total”, with 14 minutes added to the end of the first-half and 13 minutes to the second-half.

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Match lengths at Qatar 2022 “consistently stretch beyond 100 minutes”, said Tom Coley on Football.London. “This is something fans should get used to.”

Records broken

According to data by Opta, the four single halves with the most stoppage time on record in a single World Cup since 1966 all came in the matches on Monday and Tuesday. And “unsurprisingly”, all that added time “led to some very late goals”, Mallows said on the BBC.

• England vs. Iran first half: 13.59 minutes
• Argentina vs. Saudi Arabia second half: 13.53
• England vs. Iran second half: 13.05
• USA vs. Wales second half: 10.32
• Senegal vs. Netherlands second half: 10.03

‘Perennial pet peeve’

So, why has there been so much added time already played at the 2022 Fifa World Cup, Eurosport asked. Last week former referee, Pierluigi Collina, warned that fans “should expect these sorts of situations” in Qatar.

Collina, who is the chairman of Fifa’s referees committee, explained that work has been done to address a “perennial pet peeve”: time-wasting and injury time at the end of games, ESPN said. Speaking to the broadcaster, the Italian made “a distinction” between things like goal celebrations and intentional time-wasting and delays which are “an organic part of the game” – like the ball going out of play or dead-ball/set-piece situations.

At the World Cup in Russia four years ago, “we tried to be more accurate” in compensating for time lost during games and “that’s why you saw six, seven or even eight minutes added on”, he said. “Think about it: if you have three goals in a half, you’ll probably lose four or five minutes in total to celebrations and the restart. We told everybody don’t be surprised if they see the fourth official raising the electronic board with a big number on it, six, seven or eight minutes.”

It’s the fourth officials’ job to calculate the time to be added on for time lost during the game, ESPN reported. And one of the VAR team members will “keep track of time” lost to video reviews. “Even at the time I was a referee, the info [on added time] came from the fourth official,” Collina added. “You are too focused on what’s going on that it’s possible not to consider something. It’s the fourth official who usually proposes the amount of added time and the referee tends to decide… and decides.”

On average the ball is active for “approximately 60 minutes”, with recent Premier League matches “stooping as low” as 54, Coley said on Football.London. “Given fans pay large amounts of money to get to and watch matches, the response has been to increase the time that the real action can take place.”