Zhang Rongfeng Zhang Zewei/Xinhua News Agency
As the Qatar World Cup enters its third day, the trend of extra stoppage time has already emerged, and in the next matches, the number of extra stoppage time may increase.
England played Iran in almost half an hour of total stoppage time, with 15 minutes of first-half stoppage time and 14 minutes of second-half stoppage time.
For the extra stoppage time of this World Cup, FIFA wants fans to have more time to enjoy effective matches, and wants to ensure that the regular 90 minutes can be more used as competition time on the field.
England player Harry Maguire (centre) receives medical treatment after an injury on 21 November. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ga
Corina, chairman of the FIFA Referee Committee, revealed at a pre-match media briefing on the 20th that there will be long stoppage time in this World Cup, he said at the time: "During the World Cup in Russia, we tried to make up time, so you saw 6, 7, 8 minutes of stoppage time at that time. ”
Corina revealed that FIFA requires the fourth official to keep an eye on every second lost outside of effective matches on the field, including injury suspensions, substitutions, red and yellow cards, goal celebrations, VAR (video assistant referee) checks and, of course, deliberately wasted time by the clichéd leader.
The accumulated lost time outside of these competitions on the field must be completely recovered. But no one would have imagined at the time that stoppage time decisions would be executed so thoroughly, and now that you think back to England's game against Iran, it is not surprising that there were eight goals in the game against Iran.
On November 22, the referee viewed the VAR (Video Assistant Referee System) during the match. On the same day, Mexico drew 0:0 with Poland in Group C of the 2022 Qatar World Cup at the 974 stadium in Doha, Qatar. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Cheng
In the match between Argentina and Saudi Arabia on the 22nd, 8 minutes of stoppage time was originally scheduled in the second half, because the Saudi Arabian players had a long injury time in stoppage time, and the final stoppage time lasted nearly 14 minutes before the game ended, indicating that the referee team was faithful in implementing the new stoppage time policy.
According to statistics from the data website OptaJoe, after Argentina vs Saudi Arabia on the 22nd, the longest five half-time stoppage times in World Cup history came from this tournament.
On the 21st, the Netherlands against Senegal and the United States against Wales both had more than 11 minutes of actual stoppage time in the second half, and Corina made it clear that the purpose of the extra long stoppage time was to give fans more time to enjoy the game, and FIFA was also angry at the deliberate waste of time on the field.
In 2017, Dutch football legend Van Basten noticed when he was the director of FIFA's technical development department that no matter what happened on the field, the referee usually had 1-2 minutes of stoppage time in the first half and 3-4 minutes of stoppage time in the second half, and he suggested that the World Cup match adopt a "60-minute stop" model, the effective game time lasted 60 minutes, once the game was interrupted, the watch was stopped, and the game was restarted and then opened, similar to the timing method of basketball games.
Corina said FIFA could not accept an effective match time of only 42-45 minutes, so the referee committee began to implement new stoppage time for this World Cup.
VAR replays take 2 minutes to view, goal celebration takes 1 minute to 1 minute and a half, and a game alone can take 3-5 minutes, all of which are all times to consider to make up.
On November 20, Ecuadorian players celebrated the goal of captain Enna Valencia. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ming
It is naturally debatable whether extra stoppage time brings more drama or more physical exertion.
With longer stoppage time, neutral fans are certainly happy and have more time to enjoy the game. For teams and fans who are lagging behind, there are more opportunities to turn things around, and naturally they are happy to see it.
But the team leading the score and its fans, usually have opinions and even complaints, after England's 6-2 victory over Iran on the 21st, England manager Gareth Southgate expressed doubts about the long stoppage time, he said: "There was nearly half an hour of stoppage time in the first and second half, we needed to focus for too long, and then our concentration decreased, the pace of the game slowed down, and we naturally lost efficiency." ”
Southgate hinted that the penalty he gave Iran in the final minute of the game was inseparable from the extra long stoppage time.
Editor of this issue is Zhou Xiaojing