The Italian team can’t believe their eyes. As she quietly cruised to a 2-2 draw with South Africa on Wednesday August 2, opening the Azzure to a Women’s World Cup round of 16 tie against the Netherlands, the South African striker Kgiatana T. showered the dreams of an entire nation by scoring a third goal in the 92nd minute of the match. Although they tried everything for everything, the Italians never managed to catch up and the referee finally confirmed their elimination at the final whistle in the 106th minute, 16 minutes after the end of time. regulatory!

Remember that a football match takes place in two halves of 45 minutes, for a total of 90 minutes. A total duration to which is added, for each half, additional time at the discretion of the central referee of the match, ranging from 1 to 5 minutes in general (there are, for example, 30 additional seconds per replaced player) . This additional time as we know it was adopted in 1997. It was put in place to compensate for time lost during injuries or goal celebrations, because in football, unlike rugby for example, the clock does not stop not.

So, to put an end to these excesses, the chairman of the FIFA referees committee, the Italian Pierluigi Collina, decided, ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, to compensate for all these voluntary losses of time by extending the playing time. “We [wanted] to avoid matches at 42, 43, 44 minutes of effective time. So substitution times, penalty times, celebrations, medical treatment or, of course, VAR, [had to] be compensated,” he said at the time. “Celebrations [could] sometimes last 90 seconds. This time [should] be compensated,” he added, referring to “respect for viewers and viewers.”

This provision being a specific will of Fifa, it is not (yet) implemented in the national championships, such as the French Ligue 1, in the European Cup (organized by UEFA) or during the next European Championship. Europe of the nations of 2024. As for the question of whether certain matches should really last 10, or even 15, additional minutes, we prefer to kick into touch.