Despite the extraordinary amount of added time given in the 2022 World Cup so far, statistics suggest it has not improved the active time of football played in Qatar.
In the opening four games of the tournament, 61 minutes of added time was given by the referees, an average of over 15 minutes per match.
Coaches including Milan boss Stefano Pioli have long called for the introduction of active time as a rule, which should in turn discourage time-wasting tactics.
However, Opta have calculated that the active time has not really increased at all compared to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
While the minutes played on average per match rose from 97 minutes to 106 from one tournament to the next, the active playing time remained at 55 minutes.
This suggests that giving extremely long stoppages is not the key to solving the lack of active playing time.
Also, while in Italy there is constant criticism of the active time being shorter than anywhere else, that does not necessarily show in the statistics.
In 2022-23, Serie A had an average of 54 minutes and 30 seconds active playing time, two seconds more than in LaLiga, one second fewer than the Bundesliga and just 75 seconds fewer than the Premier League.
Yeah, I think they need to check their numbers.