FIFA increases the time of football matches

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) held its annual meeting in London on 4 March. FIFA President Gianni Infantino, speaking at the meeting, called for more accurate stoppage time calculations in football competitions around the world. He stated that 100-minute matches could become commonplace, as the 2022 FIFA World Cup, where 10 minutes of stoppage time was commonplace, showed the correctness of such a decision.

“All participants of the championship in Qatar, fans at the stadiums and TV viewers highly appreciated this innovation. We want to fight the waste of time, we want the fans to enjoy the game. We must ensure the universal application of the laws of the game. We will be monitoring leagues around the world to ensure that stoppage times are correct,” Infantino said at a press conference following the IFAB meeting. Discussions on increasing the amount of time the ball is in play have been a priority at the IFAB’s annual football rules meeting, he said.

According to Reuters, statistics provided by one of the leading companies in the field showed that in 2021, in the English Premier League matches, “actual playing time” was less than 60 minutes. By contrast, the France vs. Australia match during the World Cup group stage had 67 minutes of playing time.

In addition to discussing the finishing playing time of matches, IFAB also confirmed the extension of the study of the need to broadcast VAR decisions to fans in stadiums and on television.

An experiment with this innovation took place at the FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco in February 2023. It will continue at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia from May to June 2023. After reviewing the experience gained, IFAB and FIFA will decide whether this practice of broadcasting VAR decisions will be continued in other FIFA tournaments in 2023.

IFAB is an international organization that administers and regulates the rules of the game of football. The council is represented by the founding fathers of football, the football associations of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and FIFA. In the council, each British Football Association has 1 vote, while FIFA has 4 votes. IFAB decisions must be approved by a three-quarters vote; this means that a minimum of six votes is required for a decision to be made. Thus, 2 FIFA votes are needed to pass any IFAB ruling, but FIFA itself cannot change the rules of the game; they must be agreed upon by at least two members of any British associations.

Sergey Alekseev

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 0 dated November 30 -0001

Newspaper headline:
100 minute games could become commonplace