Folks are loving the Qatar World Cup, but what makes them slightly puzzled is the long duration of matches. Don’t believe us? Recall the England-Iran game. It went for as long as 117 minutes.
As per Opta, the football stats, since the year 1966, the most stoppage time on record has happened on the second day of the tournament.
4 - The four single halves with the most stoppage time on record (since 1966) in a single #WorldCup match have all been today:#ENGIRN 1st half (14:08)#ENGIRN 2nd half (13:08)#USAWAL 2nd half (10:34)#SENNED 2nd half (10:03)
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 21, 2022
Prolonged.
The moment the tournament stepped into the second half, approximately 20 of the initial 25 matches went on for a minimum of 100 minutes.
These long durations of games did not take this long by a fluke; FIFA’s design makes them go on for a long time. Why? Well, the reason behind such a long duration of matches is that FIFA desired to address the issue of playing time lost as a result of multiple breaks. The governing body wanted the fans to enjoy the maximum time possible.
If this is the case, then why does football include the practice of stoppage time? How is the stoppage time calculated? How effective is the practice? Let us dive into the answers, one by one.
The need for stoppage time in football!
Football is slightly different from other sports like hockey and basketball in terms of time calculation. Football makes us run a running clock. The twist is that the clock does not stop even in cases when the sport is interrupted for multiple reasons like injuries to the players, substitutions, and more.
As per the Laws of the Game conferred by the International Football Association, the referees add time to the assessment or removal of injured sportspersons, substitution, disciplinary sanctions, medical stoppages, delays, and other causes.
The calculation of the stoppage time is done by considering all such delays and interruptions in the game during a half and the fourth official raises an electronic board. The electronic board shows the time added on at the end of each half.
Despite this, it is possible for a play to go on for longer than the added-on extended time. How? This can happen if the on-field referee thinks that there have been additional interruptions during the injury time warranting its extension.
As per the law, the referee ought not to compensate for a timekeeping error at the time of the first half by altering the length of the second half. Yet, traditionally speaking, the second-half stoppage time has been recorded to be longer as compared to the first half.
From where did the concept of page time come into being?
It was in 1891 when the game between English clubs Aston Villa and Stoke City acted as a trigger to welcome injury time in the game.
Does stoppage time compensate for playing time lost?
Never. In the year 2017, the IFAB observed that 90-minute football matches on a rage have a playing time of only 60 minutes.
As per Soccermetrics Research, the average effective playing time in the World Cup in Russia in the year 2018 was somewhere between 52 and 58 minutes. This duration was a considerable reduction from the 60-67 minute range of effective playing time in the World Cup in Brazil in the year 2014.
An elaborated study came up following the World Cup in the year 2018, that tracked and categorized every stoppage during the initial 32 games of the tournament.
The study observed that the average stoppage time added to every game was 6:59, which comprised both thieves.
On the basis of the number, duration of interruptions, and the categories, the average time that should have been added to each game should have been 13:10, it stated.
FIFA’s efforts to add more playing time in Qatar
Before the commencement of the World Cup in Qatar, Pierluigi Collina, FIFA’s referee's committee chairman, stated that the added-on time of more than 8 or 9 minutes would be considered the norm in this edition.
The man stated that any sort of stoppage during the play would be compensated in stoppage time.
At this year's #FIFAWorldCup, any kind of stoppage during play — whether it be for injuries, time-wasting, or goal celebrations — will be compensated in stoppage time.
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) November 22, 2022
FIFA Referees Committee Chairman Pierluigi Collina explains more: pic.twitter.com/eHMhhgfkM3
“We recommended our referees to be very accurate in calculating the time to be added at the end of each half to compensate for time lost due to a specific kind of incident… What we want to avoid is to have a match with 42, 43, 44, and 45 minutes of active play. This is not acceptable,” Collina expressed.
Not only this, but Collina also expressed how teams celebrating goals for a rather long time can affect the opposition. “So, imagine in a half there are two or three goals scored (by a team) and it’s easy to lose five or six minutes and this team (the opposition) must be compensated at the end,” he said.
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