When watching a game of football, perhaps for the first time, one thing you might notice is that time is added on at the end of each half. At the end of the 45-minute half, a referee will add on a set amount of time to help make up for any time lost during the game. But why? And how is the time worked out by the referee?

Unlike many other sports that stop the clock during a stoppage in play, football does not take this route. Instead, the match clock continues at all times and time is simply added on at the end of try and make up for any lost time. However, the methods used to try and determine how much time should be added on is often subjective and controversial.

Many times, it’s easy to find disagreement for or against the stoppage time that has been included. The time will be added on across various ways, but typically the referee will look to try and keep track of any kind of stoppage in the game. This could include things such as:

• Injuries, when a player requires a significant amount of time to be treated for injury.
• Serious fouls, such as a player striking out off the ball or making an outside-the-rules tackle.
• Disputed play or goals, when a goal has to be checked over for a potential foul or mistake.
• Crowd-based stoppages, such as someone running on the pitch and/or illicit chanting.

These factors all make it hard for a crowd to accurately gauge how much time a referee will add on to any given game. Try and keep this in mind when watching football as many times the amount of added on time might not correlate with what you had expected.

Like many other parts of football rulings and regulations, it’s subjective!