In the past, there have been rumors that the traditional 90-minute length of football games has been shortened to appeal to a younger generation accustomed to quickly digesting content.
But, at the 2022 World Cup, spectators are watching games longer — much longer.
We’ve seen officials hold up their electronic boards at the end of half-time in Qatar and the signal is better than the usual four or five minutes.
Seven or eight minutes seems to be the shortest time. In some cases, more than 10 minutes have been added.
This resulted in just one of the tournament’s first eight games played in less than 100 minutes.
Purpose of reducing wasted time: The extended game time is a move by the sport’s governing body, FIFA, to combat perceived time wasting and reclaim time lost to goal celebrations, video assistant referee (VAR) reviews and substitutions.
Pierluigi Collina, renowned former referee and current President of the FIFA Referees Committee, explain Fans should expect more than 100 minutes of play, plus more than “seven or eight” minutes before the game starts.
“This is nothing new,” Collina said at a media conference. “(At the last World Cup) in Russia it was normal for the fourth official to show seven, eight, nine minutes.
“We advise 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 specific events.
“What we want to avoid is playing 42, 43, 44, 45 minutes. That’s unacceptable.”
However, these longer games have drawn mixed reactions from former players and football pundits.
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