One of the major talking points of the Qatar World Cup has been the unusually long matches; the England-Iran game, which went on for a whopping 117 minutes, is a case in point. In fact, just one of the first eight games finished within 100 minutes as the referees added lengthy stoppage time, alternatively called injury time or additional time, to each of the halves. According to football stats firm Opta, the four single halves with the most stoppage time on record since 1966 (from when data is available) all happened on the second day of the tournament. As the tournament entered the second half, around 20 of the first 25 matches went on for at least 100 minutes. These elongated games, as it has already been reported, happened not accidentally, but by Fifa's design. The game's governing body wanted to address the issue of playing time lost due to various breaks and let the fans savour the maximum possible action on the pitch. So, why does football have this practice of stoppage time? How is it calculated? How effective has it been in compensating for the playing time lost? Let us try to understand. Why does football need stoppage time? How is it calculated? Unlike basketball or hockey, football uses a running clock which does not stop even when the game is interrupted for various reasons such as substitutions, goals scored or injuries to players. According to the International Football Association Board's Laws of the Game, the referees add time on for substitution, assessment and/or removal of injured players, wasting time, disciplinary sanctions, medical stoppages permitted by competition rules, delays relating to video assistant referee (VAR) checks and reviews, any other cause, including any significant delay to a restart, such as goal celebrations. The stoppage time is calculated by taking into account all such interruptions in play during a half and the fourth official raises an electronic board displaying the time added on at the end of each half. However, the play can go on for longer than the added-on time if the on-field referee feels that there have been further interruptions during the injury time warranting its extension. The law says that the referee must not compensate for a timekeeping error during the first half by changing the length of the second half. However, traditionally, second-half stoppage time has been found to be longer than that of the first half. The origin of stoppage time A game between English clubs Aston Villa and Stoke City in 1891 is widely believed to be the trigger for the introduction of injury time in football. When his team was leading 1-0 towards the end of the game, the Villa goalkeeper deliberately kicked the ball out of the ground to waste time and ensure his team's win. This incident prompted the rule-makers to add more time at the end of each half to make up for lost playing time. Stoppage time never compensates for playing time lost In 2017, the IFAB noted that 90-minute football matches on average witness an effective playing time of only 60 minutes. It even contemplated two periods of 30 minutes with the clock stopped whenever the ball goes out of play, according to a BBC report. As is evident, a combined injury time of six or seven minutes never compensates for the playing time lost. According to Soccermetrics Research, the average effective playing time in the 2018 World Cup in Russia was between 52 and 58 minutes, which was a significant reduction from the 60-67 minute range of effective playing time at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Following the 2018 World Cup, the website FiveThirtyEight published a detailed study after tracking and categorising every stoppage during the first 32 games of the tournament. It found that the average stoppage time added to each game was 6:59, which included both halves. The time that should have been added to each game, based on the number, category and duration of interruptions was, on average, 13:10, it argued. Fifa's attempt to have more playing time in Qatar Before the start of the World Cup in Qatar, Fifa's referees committee chairman Pierluigi Collina said that added-on time of more than eight or nine minutes would be the norm this edition. He said any kind of stoppage during play — whether it be for injuries, time-wasting or goal celebrations — would be compensated in stoppage time. “We recommended our referees to be very accurate in calculating the time to be added at the end of each half to compensate for time lost due to a specific kind of incident. What we want to avoid is to have a match with 42, 43, 44, 45 minutes of active play. This is not acceptable," said Collina. Collina also highlighted how teams celebrating goals for a long time can affect the opposition. “So, imagine in a half there are two or three goals scored (by a team) and it’s easy to lose five or six minutes and this team (the opposition) must be compensated at the end.” How have the players received the change? Former England and Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher tweeted: “Enjoying the amount of time that is being added on by the officials at the Qatar World Cup 2022. There is too much time wasting in football!” Wales captain Gareth Bale, after his team's 1-1 draw against which lasted for 104 minutes, said, "I felt a little bit tired towards the end. I can’t believe there were nine minutes added on, but we have to dig deep for our country." In fact, the longer injury time had a direct impact on Wales's defeat to Iran in their next match. Iran scored two goals in the 8th and 11th minute of added-on time in the second half to emerge winners in a match that may have finished 0-0 had it been a non-World Cup game. Switzerland's Djibril Sow hit out at the move to have longer injury time, bringing up the example of Spain's 7-0 win against Costa Rica. "I saw the game between Spain and Costa Rica - I don't think there needed to be eight minutes of stoppage time. I think that's stupid. You have to have a feeling for the situation. When it's 6-0, you don't have to add another eight minutes. It's also about respect for your opponent. The longer the games go on, the more the body is strained. If you play 100, 105 minutes every time, I'm curious how many injuries there are (going to be)," Sow said, according to Goal.com. The international players' union Fifpro has expressed apprehension that the additional playing time may take a toll on the players. "If effective playing time is increased by 10 to 15 per cent, this adds substantially to the time under physical competition for players. More than anything it underlines again how critical workload protection is for players. It needs to be established now," said Fifpro general secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann. So, will major football leagues follow the model and increase stoppage time? Unlikely. The Daily Mail reported that the Premier League in England would not follow suit. Instead, it would ask the referees to encourage players to get on with the game, according to the report. Which match holds the record for the longest stoppage time in professional football? Though the England-Iran World Cup game in Qatar went on for 27 additional minutes, the record for the longest stoppage time in professional football goes to a Carabao Cup match in England between Burton Albion and Bournemouth in 2019. After the floodlights stopped working several times, 28 minutes were added as stoppage time during the match. Are stoppage time and extra time the same? No. While terms like injury time and additional time have been used interchangeably for stoppage time, extra time is different. It is the period of time added to a knockout game to determine a winner if the scores are tied even after the regular 90 minutes and the stoppage time. Typically, the extra time is 30 minutes (two halves of 15 minutes). For some time, Fifa had in place the 'golden goal' rule, according to which the team that scores first during the extra time wins the match. Another variant of the rule was the 'silver goal', which meant if a team scored first then the opposition would have until the end of the half to respond and if they failed then only they would lose. It is to be noted here that even for each half of the extra time, the referee adds a stoppage time to account for breaks in play.
