What is 'added time' in football: Know how it is calculated
Added time is also referred to as injury time or stoppage time. It is implemented by the match officials to make up for lost time during a football match.
A typical football game lasts for 90 minutes with two halves of 45 minutes. However, the clock often goes past the designated time at the end of each half, with an addition of a few minutes.
These few minutes can cause significant changes in the result of the match, with teams often going all out in the death and scoring the all-important goal.
But why do we have this added time in football, how is it calculated and who decides it?
What is added time in football?
Added time, also called injury time or stoppage time, is implemented by the referee at the end of each half to make up for time lost due to substitutions, disciplinary penalties (yellow and red cards), injury to players, arguments with the referee and delays due to video assistant referee (VAR) check.
Excessive celebration after a goal or time-wasting tactics used by teams are also considered by the referee before stoppage time is added.
The referee or one of his assistants keeps a track of the time that is lost when play is stopped due to these reasons and adds it at the end of regulation time - after 45 minutes and 90 minutes.
The fourth official raises an electronic board towards the end of each half with the number of minutes added as stoppage time.
A minimum of one minute is usually added as injury time or stoppage time but there is no upper limit.
The record for the longest stoppage time in football was made during a Carabao Cup match between Burton Albion and Bournemouth in 2019. A total of 28 minutes were added as stoppage time after the floodlights stopped working three times during the match.
But sometimes, the match goes on for 120 minutes without stoppage time. This happens when the game goes into extra time.
Difference between stoppage time and extra time
While stoppage time is used at the end of each half, extra time is added only after the full 90 minutes and stoppage time have passed and the scores are still tied.
Extra time is 30 minutes, divided into two halves of 15 minutes each and is commonly used only during knockout matches.
If the teams are still level after the extra time, a penalty shootout is taken. Five rounds of penalty kicks are taken alternatively by each team.
Why added time in FIFA World Cup 2022
The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar is also witnessing some unusually long matches due to more stoppage time being added.
Several matches have seen more than eight minutes of injury time instead of the usual four to five minutes.
The reason for this is the new policy adopted by FIFA to clamp down on time wasting.
“We recommended our referees to be very accurate in calculating the time to be added at the end of each half to compensate for time lost due to a specific kind of incident,” Pierluigi Collina, chairman of FIFA’s referee’s committee said.
“What we want to avoid is to have a match with 42, 43, 44, 45 minutes of active play. This is not acceptable.
“Whenever there will be an incident like an injury treatment, substitution slot, penalty kick, red card or celebration of a goal – I want to underline that because it is a moment of joy for one team, for the other maybe not – but it may last one or one and a half minutes.
“So imagine in a half there are two or three goals scored and it’s easy to lose five or six minutes and this team must be compensated at the end,” Collina reasoned.