Explanation: Why There Has Been Longer Added Time At The World Cup In Qatar

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar has seen a lot of unusual aspects coming from the off-field side. Now one on-field quirk has stood out so far: the longer added time.

What’s Happened?

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Surprisingly, all three matches on the second day of the tournament had so much added time. England's 6-2 win against Iran had nearly 30 minutes of stoppage time across both halves because of head injuries to goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand and defender Harry Maguire, and a long VAR check.
Regarding the second game, the Netherlands benefited from a total of 8 minutes added to the second half of their win against Senegal when they scored a second goal. After that, the game between the USA and Wales also went on for 9 extra minutes due to stoppages in the second half.

What They Said

According to refereeing legend and chairman of FIFA's referee's committee Pierluigi Collina, here's an explanation: “We told everybody not to be surprised if they see the fourth official raising the electronic board with a big number on it, six, seven or eight minutes. If you want more active time, we need to be ready to see this kind of additional time given.
"Think of a match with three goals scored. A celebration normally takes one, one and a half minutes, so with three goals scored, you lose five or six minutes. What we want to do is accurately calculate the added time at the end of each half. It can be the fourth official to do that, we were successful in Russia [2018] and we expect the same in Qatar. I am not talking about VAR intervention, this is something which is different and calculated by the Video Assistant Referee in a very precise way." he told ESPN.

The Bigger Picture

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Collina's comments indicate that long spells of injury time will a normal thing at this World Cup and will guarantee there's more time with the ball actually being in play.

Did You Know?

The four single halve with the most stoppage time on record (since 1966) in a particular World Cup game all happened on Monday. The first half of England and Iran's break had 14 minutes and eight seconds, while the second one had 13 minutes and 8 seconds. The USA took on Wales with an additional time of 10 minutes and 34 seconds at the end of the second half (a bit more than the final stage of the match between Senegal and Netherlands at 10 minutes.

What's Next At The World Cup?

It's easy to imagine that there will be seen more added time in more games at this World Cup tournament during matchday three, as Argentina take on Saudi Arabia, Denmark face Tunisia, Mexico match up with Poland and Belgium come up against Canada.