The above question seems like a silly one. Most people would say the answer is simple and say well, a game of football lasts 90 minutes, with periods of 45 minutes separated by a 15 half-time break.
However, what seems like a simple question gets more complicated as you delve deeper into the subject. For instance, in cup competitions, an extra 30 minutes is played to decide ties, with 15 minutes for each half. Games can sometimes be extended further by penalty shootouts if the tie is not decided after 90 minutes and extra time.
So why is it complicated?
The official Laws of the Game state that a professional football match should last at least the regulation 90 minutes. However, it is very rare that a game actually lasts just 90 minutes.
Due to general stoppages in play, such as injuries or the time taken to make substitutions, the referee tends to add at least one minute of extra time to either 45-minute half. The 90 minutes can be extended by one significant factor for one reason or another.
In the Premier League, for example, since 2019, officials have used the often-controversial VAR (Video assistant referee) in an effort to make the correct decisions during a game.
Unfortunately, the system can be time-consuming, at least in the Premier League, as officials can take a long time to make a decision. They have to wait for the VAR officials to view game footage, then may even have to go to the pitch side monitor to view incidents themselves.
The longest VAR check ever in the Premier League was in a game involving West Ham and Aston Villa at the London Stadium in March 2024. The officials took 5 minutes 37 seconds to disallow a winning goal from West Ham’s Tomas Soucek after on-field referee Jarred Gillett had initially given the effort.
It is fair to say that the home team was not particularly happy about the decision. The incident led to major questions being asked of the PGMOL, the organisation in charge of the referees in England, which former Premier League referee Howard Webb now heads.
That example is extreme. However, according to a Guardian article, the average VAR check in the Premier League took 64 seconds in season 2023/24. Every check prolongs a game’s run time.
In the English top-flight, the longest game ever recorded was on October 7th 2023, at Craven Cottage, as Fulham defeated Sheffield United 3-1, which was 113 minutes 54 seconds long. The prolonged game time was mainly due to Blades centre-back Chris Basham picking up a serious injury.
The 2022 World Cup set a new precedent for game time
In the World Cup 2022 in Qatar, the football authority, FIFA, vowed to make sure that officials added on any time wasted in an effort to have the ball in play as much as possible. This led to games being prolonged well beyond the 90th-minute mark or even beyond the 100th-minute mark.
One game in particular in Qatar caught everybody’s attention: England’s 6-2 group phase victory over Iran. The game was particularly interesting, as the game time finished at a whopping 117 minutes, taking the record for the longest-ever match in the history of the competition.
World Cup matches are regularly surpassing 100 minutes – so what’s with all this stoppage time?
Here’s @mjshrimper to explain why FIFA are getting ‘serious’ and why it could be here to stay…
— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) November 23, 2022
The referee played 14 minutes and eight seconds of additional time in the first half and then 13 minutes and 8 seconds in the second period. The game became something of a joke because of the absurdity of the length of added time.
The World Cup example led to the Premier League also adopting a similar approach at the start of season 2023/24. However, the approach died out towards the end of the campaign.
The games returned to more reasonable game-time lengths for the start of season 2024/25 after referees were given a new directive from the Premier League about the way they calculate stoppage time in order to avoid
However, VAR, injuries, and substitutions have still significantly affected game run times. The last two factors have always impacted games, whether in domestic or international competition. VAR has just added an extra dimension for officials to manage without sacrificing valuable in-play time.
Games are not always won over 90 minutes
While scoring in 90 minutes can be critical, stoppage time or even extra time can give teams a final chance to secure a draw or even win games. There have been some prominent examples of teams scoring vital goals after the 90-minute mark.
The Champions League is a competition that has produced its fair share of vital stoppage-time goals. In the 2014 final between arch-rivals Atletico and Real Madrid, Atletico opened the scoring through a Diego Godin header on 36 minutes.
It looked as though Los Colchoneros were heading for a famous victory and their first-ever Champions League crown. However, Los Blancos had different ideas. In the third minute of stoppage-time, Carlo Ancelotti’s team equalised through defender Sergio Ramos taking the game into extra-time.
Real Madrid then took control of the game and won 4-1 through goals from Gareth Bale, Marcelo, and Cristiano Ronaldo.
One of the most dramatic stoppage-time goals of all-time was Sergio Aguero’s for Manchester City in a 3-2 win over QPR on the last day of season 2014/15 to win the Citizens their first title of the Premier League era.
The goal was timed at 93 minutes and 20 seconds and saw City leapfrog arch-rivals Manchester United to claim the English top-flight title in dramatic fashion.
The subject of time will always be a contentious one
While we know that football is never really a 90-minute game, the subject of stoppage-time is a contentious one. When teams are winning at the end of games, they are desperate for referees to blow their final whistle and will argue there is too much added on time.
Teams who are losing and desperate to score an equaliser will always claim that the referee hasn’t added on enough time. In all fairness, officials have difficult jobs to do, and they can hardly ever please both teams.
Referees mostly judge the game to the best of their ability. Like everybody, they can make mistakes, but they keep time the best they can. Without referees and their time-keeping, we wouldn’t have a game, even if they only give two minutes of stoppage time when your team couldn’t score in 90 minutes when you wanted four.
