According to several Italian media, FIFA is considering extending the time of World Cup matches to be held in Qatar in November and December.
Goodbye 90 minutes? According to Corriere dello Sport, the international body would like to take new measures in order to avoid wasting time. Thus, the solution would be to lengthen the matches by ten minutes.
But why such an idea? Pure playing time was just 54 minutes and 39 seconds, according to the official UEFA record.
And according to a study by CIES (Football Observatory) published last year, 65.6% of the total playing time is actually played in football in the Netherlands, which gives 59 minutes and 2 seconds.
The use of VAR would also be the cause of this proposal. The most cited example is the knockout round of the Champions League between Ajax and Benfica where there were less than 55 minutes of effective play.
At the end of the day, Fifa wanted to react with a press release. “Following certain articles and rumors circulating today, FIFA wishes to clarify that there will be no change in the rules regarding the duration of football matches for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 or any other competition” , can we read.