The World Cup is typically full of surprises, and the significant amount of injury time played in the early matches in Qatar has been a major discussion topic.
There were 24 minutes of additional time in the England vs. Iran match, however, at least a portion of that was due to a protracted injury.
However, an additional nine minutes were put on for each of the other games on day two, thus it seems that a new direction has been sent to the referees.
Why does the World Cup have so much injury time?
It boils down to the desires of Pierluigi Collina, who resigned as a referee in 2005 but still has significant influence over the game.
Collina is a member of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) and the head of the FIFA referees committee. He has been agitated about injury time for some time, and what we are seeing is his reaction.
“What we did in Russia [2018] was to more precisely calculate the time to be compensated,” he told ESPN days before the World Cup.
“We informed everyone not to be startled if the fourth official raises an electronic board with a large number, six, seven, or eight minutes.
“If you want more active time, we must be willing to provide such extra time. Consider a contest in which three goals were scored. When three goals are scored, five or six minutes are lost due to celebrations, which typically last one and a half minutes.
“We want to precisely compute the increased time at the conclusion of each half. It might be the fourth official to do so; we were successful in Russia, and we anticipate similar success in Qatar.”
Is the 2022 World Cup time-wasting causing so many injuries?
It’s definitely a big part of it, and once again, it comes down to Collina. He has wanted to stop wasting time for a long time because he thinks it’s unfair to fans both in the stadium and at home who watch TV.
In an interview with the Italian news outlet Calciatori Brutti in April of this year, he was very clear about how he felt about it and predicted the “9-minute injury time” we are seeing at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“As a spectator, I buy a ticket to watch 90 minutes of football at the stadium or at home on TV, but I only see 44, 45, and 46 minutes played. Half of my ticket price goes to a time that isn’t played. Most of the time that is lost is because of throw-ins and goal kicks.
“These things are important to the game, but why do they take 8–9 minutes for throw-ins and 8–9 minutes for goal kicks? So, we’re thinking about it.
“If we want to be more specific, we’ll need to get ready for a nine-minute injury time. Today, nine minutes is a long time, but those who want to see more of a show should be able to.”
