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Reason why there’s so much stoppage time being added on at World Cup in Qatar explained

The reason as to why there’s so much stoppage time added on at the end of matches during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has been explained.

We’re just two days into the tournament and already we’re seeing a theme developing with four games so far seeing a total of 65 minutes added on between them, with England’s match against Iran lasting an incredible 117 minutes and 16 seconds.

Most will know that this was partly down to injury, with Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand suffering concussion after a nasty clash of heads early on.

However, it is also part of a concerted effort by Fifa to clamp down on time-wasting by more accurately monitoring the amount of time the game is stopped.

Reasons the game is halted include injuries, video assistant referee decisions, substitutions, penalties and red cards, with some footballers often deliberately delaying the restart after such incidents in order to wind down the clock.

Chairman of Fifa’s referees committee Pierluigi Collina confirmed last week that fourth officials had been instructed to keep on top of the time lost during matches at the tournament in Qatar, something they had also tried to do at the previous World Cup in Russia in 2018.

“In Russia, 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 told reporters at a pre-tournament briefing.

“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.”

The result of this new approach was a number of records being broken.

According to Opta, the four single halves with the most stoppage time in a single World Cup match since records began in 1966 were all on Monday:

England v Iran first half (14:08 minutes)
England v Iran second half (13:08)
USA v Wales second half (10:34)
Senegal v Netherlands second half (10:03)

Of course, added time as led to some late goals with Mehdi Taremi’s spot kick for Iran against England coming at 102:30 on the clock, the latest World Cup goal on record excluding extra time.

That was quickly followed by the second, with Davy Klaassen’s strike for the Netherlands coming after 98 minutes and 17 seconds.

The approach caused a stir on social media, with some fans praising Fifa’s attempts to clamp down on time-wasting but others felt it is leading to unnecessarily long games.

Either way, it should make you think twice if you ever consider leaving a match early again, you just don’t know when a goal will be scored at what is already a very unpredictable World Cup.

It could be rather handy the lengthy additional time too, with fans still stuck outside stadiums when the game gets under way.

Hundreds of supporters were left stranded outside the Khalifa International Stadium after the FIFA ticketing app crashed.

England took on Iran in their Group B opener at the 45,000 capacity stadium but kick off happened with thousands of empty seats visible.

Tickets for the tournament are digital as opposed to physical, paper copies but the app whereby the ticket is situated had an issue at the worst possible time.

Tickets completely disappeared from the app and that led to a large crowd gathering outside the ground, with locals and supporters from both sets of supporters affected.

So at least the amount of stoppage time is making up for the minutes fans missed at the start.

With the reason as to why there’s so much stoppage time being added on at the World Cup in Qatar explained, fans gave their reaction…

@IsMiseShane: Am honestly a fan of these absurd stoppage times in part due to time wasting, because timekeeping in games has been a joke forever

@tristandross: wtf is up with stoppage time this tournament

@tovers98: The volume of stoppage time in all these games is absolutely crazy. Not saying it’s wrong, it’s just so strange as a spectator.

@hsmtips: Unpopular opinion maybe I actually like the long stoppage times on games really makes it tense. If it stays consistent of course especially how long the ball is off pitch sometimes and the amount of time it seems to every player to take any set piece !!

@_nam11: Shame Alex Ferguson wasn’t managing a country in this World Cup. He’d be loving all these minutes of additional time.

@charliecassen: I feel like 10 minutes stoppage time in every game for no reason

@CJ_Randell: How it should be. Nothing worse than teams rolling around from minute 1. Taking ages on throws and goalkicks only for referee’s to do nothing about it.

@cormac1292: Far easier solution is just to have the clock stop when ball’s out of play

@JoePalmerUK: Stop the clock like in Rugby and then everyone knows where you stand and no Dodgy goals going in 2 mins after the amount of injury time has been played.

@JoeAlexKeith: It’s good to see all the time wasting is being added up. How many times have we moaned about the ball in play stats in the premier league. Wouldn’t you agree?

@Podgepaul: Why not just stop the clock like in rugby? Works a treat to stop cheating and ensure that everyone knows when the game is up

@Trevorlloyd92: Get this in the PL asap

@JordanKellyCFC: Just stop the clock, 90mins goes up, next time ball is out of play games over. Be adding more time on for time wasting in added time. Shocking

@JaiP72: It’s about time the game was played for the full duration. This is how football should be played. Go down for 2 mins, add 2 mins at the end.

@FlexUTD: What’s going on with the time added on in this World Cup? 🤣

@MarcSpurs: They’ve obviously been told to add on time for all stoppages.. as a fan, its about time.. fed up with GK’s & other players time wasting & PL refs just letting them get away with it, adding on 2-3mins when it should be 6-7mins..

@alwyn59: I’ve always said that football should apply some of Rugby’s rules. If there’s a stoppage in play then the clock should stop. Hopefully that will stop all the blatant time wasting. One of the other rules has crept in, it appears that mauls are now a legitimate play in the game

@_emilyoram: Sorry, FOURTEEN MINUTES OF TIME ADDED ON?

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