Pierluigi Collina, head of the refereeing committee of the organization, said that if fans want to see more pure playing time, then they need to be prepared for long matches.
Photo: Pierluigi Collina (global look press)
A large number of added minutes during the first matches of the World Cup is due to the desire of FIFA to more carefully calculate the time of stops during the games. This was stated by the chairman of the FIFA refereeing committee, Pierluigi Collina, whose words leads Football Italia.
“Already at the World Championships in Russia, we began to carefully calculate how many minutes should be compensated. We told people not to be surprised when the reserve referee raises the scoreboard with a six, a seven, even an eight (added minutes. — RBC Sport), Collina said.
According to him, if the fans want to see more net playing time, then they need to be ready for this. “We want to calculate everything more carefully. In this regard, we have achieved success in Russia and are counting on it in Qatar,” the Italian added.
The opening matches of the world championship became notable, among other things, for the fact that the referees added a large amount of time to the first and second halves of the matches. So, the teams of England and Iran (6:2) conducted the longest match in the history of the tournament.
Due to the injury of the Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand at the beginning of the meeting, prolonged medical care and subsequent substitution, the chief referee Rafael Klaus added 14 minutes to the first half, and then another 10 minutes to the second.