What Is Stoppage Time in Football? How the Referee Calculates It

Law 7 of the IFAB Laws of the Game covers the duration of the match. The relevant clause states that the referee must add time at the end of each half to compensate for time lost during that half through substitutions, assessment or removal of injured players, wasting time, disciplinary sanctions, medical stoppages, drinks breaks, VAR checks and reviews, goal celebrations, and any other cause. The clause is deliberately open-ended: the referee has sole discretion over how much time to add and is not required to publish a minute-by-minute accounting.

The fourth official displays a minimum figure on the electronic board, but the referee can extend that figure if delays occur during stoppage time itself. A goal scored in the 92nd minute of a 4-minute stoppage may add a further 60-90 seconds for the celebration and restart. A VAR check during stoppage time will add the duration of the check. The board figure is therefore best understood as a minimum, not a maximum (IFAB Laws of the Game, Law 7).

In practice, the referee or the fourth official tracks delays in real time during the half. The mental model used in elite matches is roughly: 30 seconds per substitution, 60-90 seconds per goal celebration, the duration of the actual VAR review for any VAR check, 60-180 seconds for any serious injury treated on the pitch, and a discretionary amount for repeated time-wasting. These figures are guidelines rather than mandates, and the referee can adjust them based on circumstances. PGMOL, the body running professional referees in England, has published broadly similar internal guidance.

The major change since 2022 is the FIFA directive at the men's World Cup in Qatar, which instructed referees to add the actual time lost rather than the historical convention of 3-5 minutes regardless of delays. Match averages at Qatar 2022 ran above 10 minutes of stoppage time per match compared to roughly 6 minutes at Russia 2018, and the directive has since been carried over to UEFA competitions and to most domestic leagues. The Premier League stoppage-time average rose from roughly 4.5 minutes per half in 2021-22 to roughly 7-8 minutes per half in 2022-23, the largest single-season change in the modern era (Opta, Premier League stoppage-time data 2022-23).

The motivation behind the FIFA directive was a long-running concern that effective playing time, the period the ball is actually in play, had been declining across European leagues. Multiple studies put the effective playing time at around 55-58 minutes of the 90-minute clock by the late 2010s, with the gap absorbed by goal celebrations, substitution delays and routine time-wasting (UEFA technical reports). By directing referees to add the actual time lost, FIFA aimed to push the effective playing time closer to 60 minutes without changing the underlying match duration.

The downstream effects have been significant. Cardiff University's sports-science group, alongside multiple club performance departments, has noted that the longer halves measurably increase total player load, particularly in the final ten minutes of stoppage time, with high-speed running distance and acute-chronic workload exposure rising relative to pre-2022 norms. The Professional Footballers' Association raised concerns about injury risk during the 2023-24 season. From a tactical perspective, the longer stoppage windows have changed late-game management, with sides leading by a single goal facing far longer defensive periods than under the old convention.

Stoppage time and extra time are different. Stoppage time is the added period at the end of each regular half (after 45 minutes in the first half, after 90 minutes in the second half) to compensate for delays. Extra time is two additional 15-minute halves played at the end of a 90-minute knockout match that finishes level, used in cup ties to determine a winner before a penalty shootout. Each half of extra time has its own stoppage time at the end.

A drawn knockout fixture therefore typically runs 90 minutes plus first-half stoppage and second-half stoppage, then 30 minutes of extra time plus stoppage time in each half of extra time, then potentially a penalty shootout. The full clock duration of a tie like that can run beyond 130 minutes, which is why match scheduling in cup competitions allows a 150-minute window per fixture.

• What counts toward stoppage time. Substitutions, goal celebrations, VAR checks, injury treatment, time-wasting, disciplinary sanctions, drinks breaks.
• Who decides. The referee. The fourth official's board shows the minimum; the referee can extend it during stoppage time itself.
• Typical durations. First half: 1-5 minutes. Second half: 4-12 minutes post-2022, was typically 2-5 minutes pre-2022.
• Different from extra time. Stoppage time = added to a regular half. Extra time = two 15-minute halves at the end of a level knockout fixture.

The British convention used "injury time" for decades, on the assumption that injuries were the dominant source of delay. IFAB and FIFA prefer "additional time" or "added time" as the technically correct term, recognising that delays come from many causes, not just injuries. "Stoppage time" is the American English variant. All three refer to the same thing under Law 7.

Broadcasters and pundits use the terms interchangeably, but the IFAB Laws of the Game and UEFA documentation have standardised on "additional time" since around 2019. The fourth official's electronic board displays a number with no label, leaving the terminology to the broadcast team. For consistency with British football convention, "stoppage time" remains the most widely used term in the UK and Ireland press and the most-searched form on UK search engines.