No, FIFA is not going to change the duration of the game for Qatar World Cup

Gianni Infantino

FIFA has clarified that there will be no changes to the length of football matches for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

For football lovers, it was a surprise before the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar. A viral message on social media claimed that FIFA will extend the duration of the game from 90 minutes to 100 minutes for the 2022 World Cup.

Multiple users on Facebook claimed that the governing body of world football would extend the duration of the game to 100 minutes.

India Today Anti-Fake News War room (AFWA) has found that FIFA clarified on Twitter that there will be no changes to the length of football matches for the 2022 World Cup or any other competition.

Most of the viral messages on Facebook have claimed the Italian website “Corriere dello Sport” as the source of this information.

We found that sports website “ Football Italia” reported about this on April 5 with a headline “FIFA considering playing time rule change ahead of 2022 World Cup”.

This news report says, “As reported by Corriere dello Sport, FIFA want to increase the amount of effective playing time in matches ahead of the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, but first they’ll have to receive the green light from IFAB, the body that governs the laws of football.”

But on April 6, the official Twitter handle of FIFA Media issued a statement and dismissed the viral news by calling it a “rumour”. The FIFA statement reads, “Following some reports and rumours spread today, FIFA would like to clarify that there will be no changes to the rules regarding the length of football matches for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 or any other competition.”

AFWA spoke to a couple of sports journalists to understand if there were any discussions in the world body of football regarding the duration of the game. Gautam Bhattacharya, a senior sports editor from Bengal, said, “FIFA has always been very flexible about changing the rule of the game, but I have never heard about FIFA mulling to extend the duration of the game.”

Similarly, sports journalist Debayan Sen also found this to be a baseless hoax and wondered how it germinated. “ I have no idea how it spread and from where it all began. Never heard of any change in the duration of the game so far.”

Source: India Today