World Cup fans see more active play from stoppages directive

The ball is now actively in play for 55 to 67 minutes at the FIFA World Cup 2022, said FIFA head of refereeing Pierluigi Collina

Adding more time at the end of World Cup games to compensate for stoppages has raised the average active playing time to 59 minutes, FIFA's head of refereeing said.

Pierluigi Collina said on Wednesday FIFA was “quite happy (with) the result” of games routinely extending from the 90 minutes of regulation to more than 100 in total.

The ball is now actively in play for 55 to 67 minutes, the Italian official said.

Active playing time was as little as 52 minutes for some games at the 2018 World Cup when video review of referees' decisions debuted and some reviews took more than two minutes.

“People are here to watch matches and be entertained,” Collina said in an interview filmed and distributed by FIFA.

“It's like to attend a concert — you are happy and ask for an encore of the singer.”

FIFA's directive to referees was a surprise trend early in the tournament in Qatar with more time clearly added to take account of goal celebrations.