The huge amount of additional time at the World Cup has puzzled those who followed the games. The chairman of Fifa’s referee committee, Pierluigi Collina, already told before the games about the change, which aims to increase active playing time in matches.
The men’s World Cup, which has just started, has seen exceptionally long overtimes compared to previous games.
Those following the games were surprised when, right from the opening match between Qatar and Ecuador, a total of 10 minutes of additional time were seen. However, this was nothing in the end as the first full day of matches went into extra time.
The opening half of the England-Iran match was given the Iranian goalkeeper By Ali Beiranvandi due to Rujo’s injury, 14 minutes of extra time. In the second half, the clock went a total of 13 more minutes on top of the actual game time.
If we take away England-Iran and Argentina-Saudi Arabia, which were colored by disgusting injuries, from the calculations, there has still been plenty of extra time in the opening days of the tournament.
In the table below, you can see the total overtime minutes of the 1st and 2nd halves of the matches played up to Tuesday evening.
The average overtime of the preliminary group matches played so far will therefore be slightly less than 15 minutes per match. For example, in the games played in Russia in 2018, more than eight minutes of extra time were played in only a total of four matches of the initial group.
The reason behind the clear increase in overtime is the policy made by Fifa, which wants to guarantee the substitution of game minutes for situations when the ball is not in play. The chairman of the Fifa Referees Committee is assigned to these situations Pierluigi Collina including VAR checks, injuries and their treatment situations, substitution events, penalty and free kick situations and red cards.
Collina has said that she would also like to find out and add to the list clear situations of playing time.
Does the active time of the games increase?
Collina, who rose to almost legendary status during his time as a referee, opened up about Fifa’s plans at a press conference held before the Games.
– When we talk about time wasted in matches, we try to distinguish between the time spent on game events and the time wasted by the players. Most disappear in game events. According to our calculations, on average, about nine minutes per match are wasted on boundary throws and almost the same amount on goal kicks. They are part of the game and even if the players speed up giving them, time would still be wasted, Collina described.
According to him, the more accurate calculation of extra time in the World Championships already started in the 2018 Games. Now it has been further refined. The video referee calculates the time spent on VAR checks, the fourth referee makes a proposal to the match referee about the final additional time.
– We told the teams before the start of the tournament that they should not be surprised when the fourth referee shows a large number of extra minutes. From six to eight minutes, Fifa’s referee boss continued.
Fifa’s basic purpose is to improve the amount of active time in games by monitoring time consumption more precisely. This refers to the time when the ball is in play. Collina said that Fifa does not want the active time of matches to be limited to 45 minutes.
– If we want more active time, we have to be ready for the additional time to increase in this way, he stated.
The Football Observatory research group of the Swiss Center for International Sports Research compiles statistics on active playing time on its website. According to it, for example, in the Finnish Veikkausliiga, the ball has been in play (calculated until 2019) for an average of 61 minutes and three seconds per game. According to the same statistics, the average active playing time in the English Premier League has been 60 minutes and 59 seconds.
However, the amount of active playing time per match has been decreasing in recent years also in Europe’s top leagues. According to statistics service Opta, the ball has been in play in the Premier League for an average of 55 minutes and 45 seconds.