We’ve noticed this for a while: the extra time is getting longer. But is this the case everywhere? The trend increases as the seasons pass and the minutes awarded by referees at the end of a match become more generous. This is confirmed by the data collected by Opta in various tournaments this season: the phenomenon affects everyone. Four minutes on average compared to 2021-2022, and three minutes compared to the last fiscal year…
Two years ago, the average duration of a match was 96 minutes. Today, it easily exceeds 100 minutes. In the five major leagues, La Liga saw the largest increase in extra time: +4.08%. Conversely, Series A made almost no progress (only +2.06%).
In this growth, championships stand out. In the Saudi Professional League, the average duration of matches is 105 minutes. A striking figure that makes a simple observation: Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Riyad Mahrez and others are constantly playing the equivalent of the first half of extra time. In addition to the Big Five, the Portuguese, Belgian and Turkish leagues follow this trend and go beyond 100 minutes.
For its part, FIFA and the World Cup in Qatar stressed this, pressing for an extension of extra time. ” For a long time, everyone has pointed to the lack of effective playtime as a problem that needs to be addressed. FIFA and the International Football Association Board (Responsible for the laws of the game) They were asked to address this issue and some possible solutions were suggested », said Pierluigi Collina, Zurich’s chief referee, on the International Federation’s website.
“ This recommendation is not intended to add minutes to a match, but to compensate for time spent by players when they are not playing, and only in specific circumstances. […] Therefore, it does not affect the health of the players but simply makes up for lost time “, The sixty-year-old Italian struck. In its competitions (C1, C3, C4), UEFA has taken the decision not to comply with FIFA’s requirements.
National leagues, despite their association with UEFA, have seen minutes pile up at the end of the match in recent seasons. “ In France, we chose a compromise solution: we are on a line that lies between the two international bodies », explained to us Eric Borghini, Chairman of the Federal Referees Committee. 96 minutes ago 2 years ago Today, we are approaching 100 minutes. “ If we add 10 to 15 minutes to each match, this harms the teams, especially those following European Cup matches. “, to caution.
If Monaco and Clermont were not concerned with continental matches this season, the meeting between the two teams on the first day of the French League resulted in a match rich in goals (2-4). This lively match led to an abnormally long extra time: 20 minutes in total. At the end of the match, Clermont’s coach, Pascal Justine, was torn between two feelings: “There is something right about this effective time. But of course 110 minutes is a long time and there may be more injuries in the future.”
In support of the Clermont technician’s words, several voices have recently risen among the players, most notably the voice of French defender Raphael Varane (Manchester United) on social media: “We have shared our concerns for many years now that there are too many games, that the schedule is overloaded, and that it is at a level that is dangerous to the physical and mental health of the players.” In the Premier League, growth means we are now easily exceeding 100 minutes per game.
In general, the effective playing time in a European Cup match is 60 minutes, five minutes more than in national championships. In addition to increasing the intensity of matches tenfold, adding an additional time of around 10 minutes per match (compared to seven minutes at present) would have serious consequences: players would then play the equivalent of five to six more matches per season.
Aside from these concerns, the legendary Italian referee did not budge: “I understand that any reform of the Laws of the Game, or simply the interpretation of them, as the case may be, may be viewed with suspicion by some, but, as was the case with the introduction of VAR, when actions aim to defend football, they end up being accepted. » I’m not sure the problem exists and that players hear it this way.
