World Cup: Why is there so much injury time at Qatar 2022?
There were an extra 27 minutes injury time played during England’s opening Group B clash with Iran
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The opening matches of World Cup 2022 have seen far more added time than normal after Fifa’s pre-tournament instruction to maximise playing time and cut out time-wasting.
England’s match against Iran featured an incredible 27 minutes of injury time, with the serious head injury suffered by Iranian goalkeeper Ali Beiranvand accounting for a decent chunk of it.
Nine minutes were added at the end of the Wales vs United States match, with eight added at the end of the second half of the Senegal v Netherlands match.
Fifa is making a concerted effort to clamp down on wasted time at these finals, as it did at Russia in 2018.
Pierluigi Collina, the Italian who chairs Fifa’s referees committee, said last Friday: “We recommended our referees to be very accurate in calculating the time to be added at the end of each half to compensate the time lost.
“What we want to avoid is matches lasting 42, 43, 44, 45 minutes of active play. This is unacceptable. Whenever there will be an incident like an injury treatment, substitution slot, a penalty kick, a red card, a celebration of a goal…
“A celebration may last one, one and a half minutes, so imagine in a half there are two or three goals scored, so it’s easy to lose three, four, five minutes just for goal celebrations. This time has to be considered and compensated at the end.
“And of course, the time lost to VAR intervention by the way.”