Qatar 2022 World Cup: why so many injury time is given
In the first two days of the FIFA World Cup 2022, many minutes of added time were allowed during the matches. This is the thing that was immediately noticed by the spectators of the first matches played between yesterday and today. Already in the opening clash, between Qatar, landlord, and Ecuador, won by the South Americans, the referee had assigned 12 minutes of added time. And again: 11 in Senegal-Holland, 13 in United States-Wales and, finally, the maxi-recovery during England-Iran, a good 24 extra minutes. Today, 22 November, 14 minutes of added time were given in Argentina-Saudi Arabia and 8 minutes in Denmark-Tunisia. The average of matches after the first two days is 106 minutes per match.
The World Cup in Qatar started less than 48 hours ago, but the change that has taken place in the world of football is already evident. The fact that playing times have thus lengthened, far exceeding the effective 90 minutes, derives from a clear consideration made by FIFA president Gianni Infantino months ago: “In every game there is a lot of lost time. There is a need to review something because spectators pay to watch 90 minutes of football, while the matches last 50 minutes”.
Italian football
Infantino’s words make you smile if you think of the tricks found by the players to “waste time”, in particular, close to the final triple whistle and, worse, during injury time. And in this, the Italian teams are true experts: improvised injuries, stumbles in the air, the raises of the goalkeepers at risk of booking.
“I’m not saying we’ll get to 100 minutes – added Infantino on that occasion – but undoubtedly the recovery time that the referee grants must be closely linked to the minutes lost during the match. We need to reflect on the actual playing time”. Indeed, the goal is to offer spectators – especially those who pay for tickets to enter the stadium – playing time that is as close as possible to that actually envisaged by the football regulations.
Will the minutes also increase in Serie A?
In light of what is happening in the Qatari stadiums, it cannot be excluded that this novelty could also touch the much loved Serie A, already in January, when the Italian championship will restart: “We want to avoid matches with 42 minutes of effective time”, declared the president of the Fifa referee commission, Pierluigi Collina a few days before the World Cup. “Think of a match with three goals scored: a celebration normally lasts a minute, a minute and a half, so with three goals scored, you lose five or six minutes,” Collina specified. Who knows if even Salernitana-Milan (the first in the championship in 2023) doesn’t last 110 minutes.
#Qatar #World #Cup #injury #time