Honestly, you’d think knowing how long a football match lasts is simple, right? I thought so too. Until my nephew asked me last weekend before his first live game, and I kinda stumbled. “Uh, about 90 minutes?” Then he asked if that was exact, and I honestly wasn’t 100% sure. That bugged me.
Okay, Time to Actually Look This Up
I plonked myself down at the laptop, cracked open a cold drink, and just started searching. First things first, the basic playing time. Straight up, most places said it: 90 minutes total, split into two chunks. That makes sense, two halves. Got it.
- Halves: Nearly everywhere confirmed 45 minutes each half. Simple enough on paper.
- The Referee Holds the Power: That’s where it got interesting. Kept reading about “added time” or “injury time.” Basically, the ref watches the game and sees all the little stops – players rolling around “injured” (you know the ones), substitutions taking forever, goal celebrations that drag on, time-wasting shenanigans. He adds extra minutes at the end of each half to make up for all that lost time.
- How Much Added Time? This part is totally up to the ref. Found articles mentioning anywhere from a measly 1 minute to sometimes 5, 6, or even more minutes tacked on, especially late in the second half. No strict rules, just the ref deciding what’s fair based on the chaos he witnessed.
Then, Half-Time Threw Me Off
Thinking it was maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Nope. Did more digging. Apparently, players get a 15-minute break between halves. Seems obvious now, but I just never clocked it properly before. Goes into the whole timing thing for sure.
Hitting a wall mentally here. My wife called me over to help fix the dodgy garden sprinkler. Took ages. Totally broke my research flow. Later, tried watching a recorded Premier League match on TV, intending to actually time the halves and the break. Fell asleep on the couch before half-time ended. Fail.
The Real-World Test
Fast forward to Tuesday night. My local pub team was playing a cup game. Perfect chance! Grabbed my phone stopwatch. First half kicked off.
- Blast of the whistle: Started the timer.
- Saw substitutions take ages. One guy tying his laces like he was performing surgery.
- Someone went down hard near the end (looked painful), physio on ages.
- Ref blew after 45 minutes? My timer said 47 minutes and 20 seconds. Interesting.
- Halftime break: Checked my watch when players walked off, checked again when they walked back on. Almost exactly 15 minutes. Spot on.
- Second half: Similar stuff. Time-wasting became an art form by the team holding the lead. Couple more delays. Ref blew the final whistle. My timer? The second half alone was 49 minutes and change.
So the official total playing time after ref’s added minutes: Somewhere between 96 and 97 minutes. Plus the 15-minute break. Entire thing from kick-off to leaving the field? A lot longer than I thought!
The Big Takeaway
Yeah, it’s basically 90 minutes of planned play. But the real world is messy. The ref adding time means it always runs longer. Sometimes just a couple of minutes, sometimes loads. And that break is a fixed 15 minutes. So if someone says “The game’s 90 minutes,” they’re technically right, but practically, expect more like 105 to 115 minutes total event time, maybe even longer with a chatty ref or crazy delays. Blew my mind how much variation that “added time” introduces. My nephew definitely needed the full picture, not just my lazy “about 90 minutes” answer!