What's going on with stoppage time at the World Cup?

What's going on with stoppage time at the World Cup?Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Pierluigi Collina, Fifa's head of referees, has been searching for a way to get more time into the game without adding on lots of stoppagesByDale JohnsonFootball issues correspondentPublished5 minutes agoCommentsThe stoppage-time board used to be met with groans. Ten, 11, 12 minutes or more would be signalled by the fourth official.But not at the 2026 World Cup.Even factoring in the three minutes for the hydration break, the added time has been surprisingly low - sometimes only five or six minutes going up on the board.So what is happening? Fifa referees' chief Pierluigi Collina decided to wage war on time-wasting, changing tack from the last tournament where he told referees to add absolutely everything on.In Qatar, matches were lasting on average more than 100 minutes.But at this tournament - ignoring the time for hydration breaks - matches are clocking up 96 minutes."The goal we want to achieve is to increase the tempo of the match," Collina said ahead of the finals.Collina introduced a number of measures, such as putting five-second countdowns on goal-kicks and throw-ins.Tactics were introduced to try to limit how teams would break up games, by placing a 10-second clock on substitutions and forcing players who require treatment to stay off the field for one minute.The changes have, so far, been well received in the United States, Mexico and Canada.But do the stats show that Collina's masterplan is actually working? 'Players will respect the limit'Collina's philosophy was pretty simple.If you stop players taking too long over the mundane tasks, that time could be given back to the game without adding it on at the end."The objective is to eliminate, as much as possible, the disruption of the tempo of the match," Collina explained.This was never supposed to be about awarding loads of corners, or being strict on substitu...