Football

World Cup 2022: Why is there so much added time in Qatar

Pierluigi

Matches at the 2022 FIFA World Cup have had lots of time added already and fans are asking questions. Why the unusually high amount of added time? With 8 matches played so far, the additional time went beyond 100 minutes. There were more than 60 added minutes after four games. In some cases, we have witnessed witness up to 9 minutes added to a game.

At least 24 minutes were added to England vs Iran fixture. First-half of the game had additional 14 minutes, which was largely due to an injury that Iran’s goalkeeper sustained in the game. Still, it is beyond the amount of time often added whenever such incidences occur in league matches. In total, England vs Iran fixture clocked at least 117 minutes.

Thanks to the many minutes being added to matches, we now have the latest goal ever scored in a FIFA World Cup match. Iran’s forward Mehdi Taremi scored from a spot kick at 102:30 on the clock. Taremi’s goal was still within the regular time of the clash with England as Full-time minutes clocked 104:34.

Another interesting case was in the World Cup clash between USA and Wales during which at least 10 minutes were added.

Are substitutions and snjuries a factor?

injured player

There are usually incidences in soccer matches that force referees to add more time at the end of every half. However, we are hardly used to anything beyond 6 or 7 minutes. The 2022 World Cup is, therefore, turning out to be unique in many ways.

Iran’s goalkeeper injury incident consumed lots of time so the added minutes were somehow warranted. But still, one would argue the added time is becoming usually high even in other matches.

Time on the clock for Qatar vs Ecuador was 100:18 while Senegal vs Netherlands World Cup match clocked 102:49. Then we had the USA vs Wales match that hit 104:34 on the clock.

Substitutions are another factor to consider as they usually eat into regular time. But according to sources, there could even be more time added to 2022 World Cup matches as FIFA looks to clamp down on time-wasting incidences in football matches.

FIFA’s new time guidelines

If not for the injuries and substitutions, players sometimes waste time deliberately to drag out a match. A typical example is where a team is ahead of the opponent or one side is satisfied with a draw and hence does things that waste time. Incidences where goalkeepers delay before taking a goal kick or players take too much time to take a throw-in, are not isolated.

FIFA is now taking time-wasting in football seriously. The new time-wasting guidelines that have seen lots of added minutes so far in the 2022 World Cup are meant to ensure effective time management. FIFA’S head of referee committee, Pierluigi Collina, addressed the issue of time-wasting ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In his address, Luigi said that they tried to address the issue in Russia, in which case, some matches had up to 8 minutes added.

He also stated that goal celebrations are other factors that have forced FIFA to consider adding more minutes to football matches. According to Collina, up to five minutes can be wasted when a team scores say, three goals in any half of a match. Former England defender, Jamie Carragher, has also weighed in on the matter. Carragher tweeted that he is enjoying the amount of time added to matches in Qatar as there is too much time-wasting


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