FIFA / Extra time: "Our recommendation does not affect the players' welfare" (Pierluigi Collina)

"After a consultation process in which representatives of all Confederations, including UEFA, took part, IFAB recommended that referees should calculate the additional time more accurately, enforcing the criteria set in the Laws of the Game (Article 3, Law 7). This recommendation is not about adding minutes to the game, but compensating time when players are not playing, and only in specific circumstances. This recommendation does not affect the players' welfare but simply compensates for time that has been wasted," declared Pierluigi Collina (ITA), chairman of FIFA Referees Committee, in a message published on the body's website on 31/08/2023.

Applied for the first time in official competition at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the new recommendation on extra time was then implemented at the 2023 Women's World Cup, before being adopted in the Premier League and the Ligue 1 Uber Eats from the start of the 2023-24 season.

However, at a press conference held in Monaco on 31/08/2023 ahead of the draw for the European Cups' group stages, UEFA revealed that it had a slightly different…