Qatar 2022: This is why there is so much added time in Qatar 2022 World Cup

Former six-time best referee in the world explains why we have an unprecedented amount of added time.

14 minutes added time in a world cup game

Day two of Qatar 2022 saw a 56-year record of the latest goal scored in the World Cup finals broken by two different players.

We have witnessed added time in the double-figures in five of the six games played so far at the world cup and Pierluigi Colina in an interview with ESPN tries to make sense of it for us.

The current chairman of the FIFA refereeing committee and former six-time best referee in the world sat down with ESPN journalists from his home in Italy explaining general refereeing practices, and modifications in the Qatar 2022 World Cup. A lot of emphasis was placed on added time due to time wasting by him.

Pierluigi Colina on added time

“Don’t be surprised if you see the fourth official raising the electronic board with a big number on it.” He said.

“We want to avoid matches with just 42, 43, 44 minutes of effective playing time.

“What we already did in Russia, you may remember, is to more accurately calculate the time to be compensated at the end of each half.”

Here Colina claims the development is not the new thing we think it is as they were suggested and even implemented in Russia 2018.

Pierluigi Colina on extra time in the world cup AFP

Colina continues: “And in Russia we told everybody, don’t be surprised if you will see the fourth official raising the electronic board with a big number on it.”

“Think a match, where in a half there are three goals scored, the celebration takes one, one and half minutes. So three goals scored, basically you lose five, six minutes.”

According to Colina, what we sometimes refer to as injury time accounts for more than time wasted for injuries sustained within a game and even things like goal celebrations are accounted for in the calculations for added time.

He Concludes: “What we really want to do is to accurately calculate the time to be added at the end of each half.”

Source: Pulsegh