The duration of the match

The duration of the match will vary depending on what form of soccer you play. For example if you play an inside soccer game the time will be shorter then a regular soccer match. So how long is a regular match? Well, usually a standard soccer match consists of two half’s, each 45 minutes long.

These two halves run continuously, which simply means that the clock is not paused until you kick the ball out of the soccer field. Also, there is also a fifteen minute pause between the halves. Full-time means that game is over.

As a referee you will be the timekeeper and you will also have permission to extend the duration of the match to compensate time for substitutions, injuries, or other kind of things that may stop the match. For example a spectator running on the soccer field half naked being chased by 20 cops :-)

This may be fun when no one get hurts, but when Sweden played against Denmark in may 2007 a spectator attacked the referee and Sweden was rewarded with a 3-0 victory because it was a Danish supporter that run on the soccer field and therefore the Denmark’s soccer association was found guilty for this. Anyway let’s continue whit duration of a soccer match, next out: added time.

Added time in soccer terms can be defined either as stoppage or injury time. In most cases it is the main referees task to keep an eye on the stoppage time but in professional soccer there is generally (beside the assistant referees) a fourth referee that is responsible for the injury time and substitutes. The fourth official has usually an electronic board and uses it to display how many minutes will be added to the injury time.

In a professional soccer league many matches generally end in a draw but in many playoff competitions like world cup (unless the game is a group match), a game cannot end with 0-0 in regular time (90 minutes + injury time) the game will break for some minutes and then continue further with two 15 minutes periods (Note also that 15 minutes periods don’t have injury time.

If a player gets hurt the clock will not be stopped. If no team have scored under the two extra periods, a penalty shootout will be assigned (also known as penalty kick) which will determine the winner of the match.