If you thought the first eight matches at the World Cup were among the longest in history, then you’d be on the money. One of the common themes developing across the opening three days is the amount of stoppage time being added at the end of each half. The eight games so far have had nearly 100 minutes of time added on between them with England’s clash with Iran having over 27 minutes, making it the longest. The 14 minutes of stoppage time in the first half was mainly due to the head injury to Iran goalkeeper Alireza Reiranvand, but it’s also part of an effort by FIFA to clamp down on time-wasting tactics. The Netherlands‘ Davy Klaassen scored in the ninth minute of added time against Senagal, despite the officials adding eight minutes of injury time. But goals, VAR checks, substitutions and general time-wasting have all contributed to the increased time added on. This has led to a lot of late goals, with Mehdi Taremi and Davy Klaassen both scoring in the dying embers of a match – Klaassen’s goal against Senegal was the latest scored by a Dutchman in World Cup history. Explaining the reason behind the extra minutes, former referee and chairman of the FIFA referees committee, Pierluigi Collina, told reporters: What we already did in Russia [2018] was to more accurately calculate the time to be compensated.” “We told everybody to not be surprised if they see the fourth official raising the electronic board with a big number on it, six, seven or eight minutes. If you want more active time, we need to be ready to see this kind of additional time given. Think of a match with three goals scored. A celebration normally takes one, one and a half minutes, so with three goals scored, you lose five or six minutes. “What we want to do is accurately calculate the added time at the end of each half. It can be the fourth official to do that, we were successful in Russia and we expect the same in Qatar. Collina added: I am not talking about VAR intervention, this is something which is different and calculated by the Video Assistant Referee in a very precise way. “Even at the time I was a referee, the info [on added time] came from the fourth official, you are too much 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.
