World Cup fans see more active play from stoppages directive
The Hindu
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.
Asian Games champion Avinash Sable opened his season in the 3000m steeple chase with a silver in the Portland Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze event, in Oregon on Saturday. He clocked 8:21.85s. Asian champion Parul Chaudhary took the bronze in the women’s 3000m steeple chase in a season-best 9:31.38s. Former Asian bronze medallist Sanjivani Jadhav struck gold in the women’s 10,000m in 32:22.77s, a time which was a second off her personal best, while Seema was sixth in 32:55.91s.