DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Adding more time to the World Cup final matches to make up for the stoppages has increased the average active playing time to 59 minutes, FIFA’s chief of referees said on Wednesday.
Pierluigi Collina said FIFA was “quite happy (with) the result” of matches that usually stretched from 90 regulation minutes to more than 100 in total.
The ball is now actively in play for 55 to 67 minutes, the Italian referee said.
Active playing time was as little as 52 minutes for some games at the 2018 World Cup when video review of referee decisions debuted, with some reviews taking more than two minutes.
“People are here to watch the games and be entertained,” Collina said in an interview filmed and distributed by FIFA.. “It’s like going to a concert: you’re happy and you ask for an encore from the singer.”
FIFA’s directive for referees was a surprise trend at the start of the tournament in Qatar with more time clearly added to account for goal celebrations.
“It takes a long time to celebrate a goal and for opponents it’s less of a chance to play,” said Collina, who worked the 1998 and 2002 World Cups when referees routinely added an extra four minutes total to games.
FIFA also wanted referees to add at least one minute for an injury delay and 30 seconds for each pause to make a substitution.
Average added time was more than 10 minutes after half of the 64 games had been played through Monday, the first World Cup in which teams made five substitutions.
The average has also been distorted, Collina said, by the second game of the tournament when England beat Iran 6-2. More than 27 minutes were added for injuries, including a concussion suffered by the Iranian goalkeeper, a video review for a penalty and eight goals scored.
In 2018 in Russia, stoppage time averaged 6 1/2 minutes, which probably would have increased by another minute if five substitutions had been allowed, he suggested.
“It’s not as dramatic of a change as you might have felt after the Iran-England match that was at the start of the competition,” Collina said, “so maybe it created a sense that things were going in a direction that wasn’t the way it was. same”. .”
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