World Cup basics: What is stoppage time, and why is there so much of it?

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While recently there have been rumblings of soccer matches being shortened from their traditional 90-minute length to appeal to a younger generation, at the 2022 World Cup, audiences experience even longer games -- a lot longer.

This is due to "stoppage time," minutes added back to the game clock due to various delays in play. Seven or eight minutes often seems to be the minimum. On a few occasions already, over 10 minutes have been added on. It has resulted in just one of the opening eight games of the tournament finishing in less that 100 minutes.

The lengthier games have prompted a mixed response from former players and soccer pundits.

Former England and Liverpool midfielder Jamie Carragher said on Twitter: "Enjoying the amount of time that is being added on by the officials at the Qatar World Cup 2022. There is too much time wasting in football!"

But South American football expert Tim Vickery said it was "adding extra rounds at the end of a boxing match."

"Not in favor of these giant stoppage times," Vickery wrote on Twitter. "Grinding the players into the ground. 4 would have been fine. 9? Not for me."

He added: "Players already cover much more ground than they used to. Make up for blatant time wasting, ok. But all this is too much."

Physiotherapist Matt Konopinski also warned that the increase in the amount of added time, on top of "an acute demand in terms of games and games density," could lead to more player injuries.

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