The 2022 FIFA World Cup games have seen longer stoppage times in both halves because of a new policy by FIFA.

Each game of the Qatar tournament has so far eclipsed 100 minutes with the match between England and Iran running for an extra half an hour of stoppage time across both halves.

Other games have recorded an average of more than ten minutes of additional time.

Refereeing legend and chairman of FIFA’s referees committee, Pierluigi Collina, has explained why the tournament is having longer stoppage time, saying the move is to increase the period that the ball is in play and compensate for the time lost during VAR checks, stoppages for treatment of injuries and substitutions.

The Italian told ESPN: “We told everybody to not be surprised if they see the fourth official raising the electronic board with a big number on it, six, seven or eight minutes. If you want more active time, we need to be ready to see this kind of additional time given.

“Think of a match with three goals scored. A celebration normally takes one, one and a half minutes, so with three goals scored, you lose five or six minutes.

“What we want to do is accurately calculate the added time at the end of each half. It can be the fourth official to do that, we were successful in Russia [2018] and we expect the same in Qatar. I am not talking about VAR intervention, this is something which is different and calculated by the Video Assistant Referee in a very precise way.”