You may have noticed that during England’s emphatic 6-2 win over Iran that a total of 27 minutes and 16 seconds were added on.
This saw the record broken for the two longest halves in the history of the competition since records began.
But it was not just England and Iran which saw an unusual amount of stoppage time, and here is why games have been lasting for so long…
World Cup 2022: Why so much added time?
All four of the games played so far have been incredible amounts of time added on:
Qatar vs Ecuador: 100:18 minutes
England vs Iran: 117:16 minutes
USA vs Wales: 104:34 minutes
This is because FIFA has created new added time guidelines to maximise effective playing time and to help combat time-wasting.
Fourth officials have been informed to make a more conscious effort to prevent players from time wasting.
FIFA have made the decision to clamp down on time-wasting at the tournament, as revealed by the chairman of the federation’s referee committee, Pierluigi Collina:
“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.
“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.”
This has led to record-breaking amounts of added time and record-breaking late goals.
Both halves of the Three Lions’ clash with Iran were two longest in the history of a World Cup with the second halves of Wales vs USA and Senegal vs the Netherlands third and fourth.
Meanwhile, Mehdi Tarmei’s spot-kick against England was the latest ever goal at the competition as he netted in the 102nd minute.
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)
Prolonged.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 21, 2022
Read more here:
Arsenal sensation Bukayo Saka among six players to score in their World Cup debut in Qatar
