World Cup: why was 27 minutes added in England-Iran?

An extraordinary match in every sense of the word. England beat Iran (6-2) on Monday to enter the extended run at this World Cup. Because the British and the Iranians, who expressed their political views before the start of the match, clashed far beyond the 90 minutes time limit. The two teams played 27 minutes of stoppage time on the turf of the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha. Incredible amount close to renewal.

How did we get here? Brazilian referee Rafael Klaus decides to play 14 extra minutes from the first period. The main reason: Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand was injured from the eighth minute. The victim of a knockout after coming face-to-face with defender Majid Hosseini, the goalkeeper was left on the ground, hitting hard before gradually recovering. The game resumed at the fifteenth minute after the player changed his bloody shirt. Beiranvand, thinner, left in the 19th minute. These two facts of the game may account for the significant extra time, even if 14 minutes seems particularly long.

In the second half, the referee evaluates this time the stoppage of the game at 10 minutes. But these 45 minutes were marked only by an injury to England defender Harry Maguire, as well as two substitutions for Mellie’s team and five for the British. In short, nothing crazy. We are already moving towards an astronomical total of 24 minutes when, at the end of the second period, Rafael Klaus awards a penalty to the Iranians after calling VAR. Ta Mekhi Taremi transforms into 90 + 13, which gives us a total of 27 minutes.

“The time of the celebrations will have to be compensated”

That’s a lot, but it’s in line with recent FIFA guidelines for World Cup whistles. “We want to avoid games with 42, 43, 44 minutes of effective time. So the time of substitutions, penalties, celebrations, medical care or, of course, VAR will have to be compensated,” Pierluigi Collina, president of the FIFA refereeing committee, warned on Friday. “You can expect longer halves,” Dutch referee Danny Makkely warned. This is one of the topics we talked about. It won’t be strange to see six, seven, eight minutes of stoppage time. »

Monday’s meeting did not beat what appears to be a record in this area. In 2019, the English League Cup game between Burton Albion and Bournemouth ended after 28 minutes of stoppage time. But we are talking about a meeting marked by numerous power outages.