The 2022 World Cup football seems to easily become the longest World Cup ever in terms of pure playing time. The referees in Qatar deal with the clock in a different way than before, and as a result, a lot more time is added during the World Cup matches than in previous years. If it is up to KNVB referee boss Dick van Egmond, we will soon see this development in the Eredivisie, he says in conversation with the Eindhovens Dagblad.
Van Egmond is very satisfied with the development, which can prevent wasting time from being beneficial in the long term. “Very good. Positive attention to this phenomenon certainly does no harm. We have been working for a number of years to better arrange this in the Eredivisie and the number of minutes is already increasing.” In the Netherlands, Feyenoord coach Arne Slot has spoken out on this subject several times. The coach is very annoyed by the often occurring lack of extra playing time.
Still, Van Egmond wants to wait for the full conclusion after the World Cup before making final decisions. “Let’s first see what the average is like when we measure it over an entire tournament, so after all the matches. Partly due to injury treatments, we have now seen a number of extremes. It is also now a theme because in many matches there is something at stake and the level is sometimes close to each other. In the Eredivisie, the amount of injury time is also increasing, but that usually does not matter.”
All in all, the referee affairs coordinator seems to be in favor of extra injury time. “If this is given a push in the right direction by the World Cup, that is a very good thing. Nowadays you also have more substitutions that a trainer can bring into the team, sometimes even six. We have to be aware of the time that all this takes. No one can be against that!”
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