The matches of the opening round of the 2022 World Cup, played from Sunday to Thursday, have been added up 226 minutes of compensation, an average of 14.1 per match, given FIFA’s intention to extend the useful time of the game.
According to the information displayed on the official website of the organization in the internetEngland’s defeat (6-2) against Iran, captained by Portugal’s Carlos Queiroz, on Monday in Pool B, broke the record for discounts in 22 editions of the competition, lasting 119 minutes.
Brazilian referee Raphael Claus conceded 29 minutes akin to extra time, with 15 in the first half, which was conditioned by medical aid to Persian goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand, and 14 in the second, when the Video Referee (VAR) was used to to confirm a penalty for the Asians, which Mehdi Taremi scored.
An identical injury to Yasser Al-Shahrani in the dying moments also contributed to Saudi Arabia’s sensational success over Argentina (2-1) in Group C lasting 111 minutes, with seven minutes of ‘discounts’ in the opening stages and 14 minutes. In the second half.
On the eve of the start of the World Cup, which will take place in Qatar until December 18, Italy’s Pierluigi Collina, former international referee and current president of the FIFA Referees Committee, had already warned that “respect for spectators and spectators” the regulator of world football to take drastic measures in the duration of the duels.
“We want to avoid the game having 42, 43 or 44 minutes of useful time. Therefore, the time spent making substitutions, penalties, goal celebrations, medical assistance and using the VAR must be properly compensated.” he appealed.
This new approach popularized unusual discounts, the most discreet examples of which were matches Morocco-Croatia (0-0), Switzerland-Cameroon (1-0), Brazil-Serbia (2-0) and Uruguay-Ghana (0-0), all in 100 minutes (10 minutes over 90 minutes required) .
The remaining 12 games surpassed that bar, including Portugal’s success against Ghana (3-2) on Thursday in Group H, which echoed the 14 minutes of extra time for Senegal v Netherlands (0-2) – three on the way to the break and 11 in the final stretch -, with both collisions sharing seventh place in the opening round endurance rankings.
“You have to think of it like this: if three goals are scored in a half, four or five minutes are probably lost in the festivities until the match resumes,” illustrated Collina, who defended that “that time must be compensated”. .
If the first half produced 81 minutes of ‘discounts’, at an average of 5.06 per game, the complementary halves nearly doubled the statistic, at 145, with an average of 9.06, making the 2022 World Cup a departure from the pattern that was noted in previous editions of testing.
As a rule, referees added one to two minutes at the end of the initial phase, plus three to five at the end of the game, at a time when three substitutions were provided, while the VAR system appeared four years ago , in Russia. .
Qatar will host the first edition of the tournament with the possibility for each team to make five regulatory changes at three different times, and an additional one is also guaranteed in the case of football players with suspected concussion, such as the case of Iran’s Alireza Beiranvand, former guard – Boavista’s goalkeepers, who were still trying to stay on the field after colliding with compatriot Majid Hosseini, causing an eight-minute first break, from eight to sixteen.
The Persians’ match with England would be halted again moments later, between 17 and 20 minutes, when the goalkeeper asked for his substitution and left the pitch on a stretcher, with Carlos Queiroz promoting the first of six changes made.
The significant inflation of referees’ time to compensate for interruptions in the 2022 World Cup will exacerbate the fatigue of footballers, who had just one week instead of the usual three to prepare for an unprecedented edition of the World Cup mid during the summer. the season, despite a high density of club league matches in a short space of time.
The physical fitness of the 32 teams, which have managed to increase the roster from 23 to 26 athletes, can be tested even harder after the first phase, when the qualifiers include the possibility of playing overtime – which is a extra substitution – and even penalty kicks.
Source: DN
