Summarizing effective time of the 2018 FIFA World Cup

In a previous post, I wrote about match management by referees at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Effective match time is part of that analysis, and it is possible to infer the average amount of effective time during the tournament. This post will break down effective match time over all 64 matches played.

As is the case for all of my analytical content on the World Cup, the underlying match event data has been supplied by DataFactory LatAm. The data is of good quality, but unfortunately does not track the moments when the ball has gone out of play for a throw-in. Because of this, it’s not possible to compute effective match time exactly. To get around this, I have estimated the amount of time lost from the number of throw-ins in the match which then allows me to create an estimate of effective match time. It’s the best that can be done at the moment with the data available.

Below is the chart of estimated effective time over all 64 matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The nominal times and upper and lower estimates are presented in seconds for the regulation time and extra time periods. The matches are currently ordered by the order of occurrence, but you can sort by the other fields.

Home Team Away Team Home Team English Away Team English Referee Regulation Upper Regulation Nominal Regulation Upper Extra Time Upper Extra Time Nominal Extra Time Upper
Rusia Arabia Saudita Russia Saudi Arabia Néstor Pitana 2546 2852 3093 0 0 0
Egipto Uruguay Egypt Uruguay Björn Kuipers 3795 3987 4142 0 0 0
Rusia Egipto Russia Egypt Enrique Cáceres 3417 3581 3715 0 0 0
Uruguay Arabia Saudita Uruguay Saudi Arabia Clément Turpin 3393 3562 3701 0 0 0
Uruguay Rusia Uruguay Russia Malang Diedhiou 3073 3237 3371 0 0 0
Arabia Saudita Egipto Saudi Arabia Egypt Wilmar Roldán 3824 3960 4072 0 0 0
Portugal España Portugal Spain Gianluca Rocchi 3553 3694 3811 0 0 0
Marruecos Irán Morocco Iran Cüneyt Çakır 2549 2791 2986 0 0 0
Portugal Marruecos Portugal Morocco Mark Geiger 2592 2818 2999 0 0 0
Irán España Iran Spain Andrés Cunha 2964 3139 3281 0 0 0
Irán Portugal Iran Portugal Enrique Cáceres 3144 3324 3471 0 0 0
España Marruecos Spain Morocco Ravshan Irmatov 3131 3256 3359 0 0 0
Francia Australia France Australia Andrés Cunha 2963 3189 3370 0 0 0
Perú Dinamarca Peru Denmark Bakary Papa Gassama 3275 3444 3583 0 0 0
Francia Perú France Peru Mohamed Mohammed 2693 2964 3180 0 0 0
Dinamarca Australia Denmark Australia Antonio Mateu Lahoz 3523 3715 3870 0 0 0
Dinamarca Francia Denmark France Sandro Ricci 3473 3670 3830 0 0 0
Australia Perú Australia Peru Sergei Karasev 3205 3424 3601 0 0 0
Argentina Islandia Argentina Iceland Szymon Marciniak 3423 3560 3672 0 0 0
Croacia Nigeria Croatia Nigeria Sandro Ricci 3375 3483 3574 0 0 0
Argentina Croacia Argentina Croatia Ravshan Irmatov 2650 2898 3097 0 0 0
Nigeria Islandia Nigeria Iceland Matthew Conger 2864 3044 3191 0 0 0
Nigeria Argentina Nigeria Argentina Cüneyt Çakır 2358 2658 2895 0 0 0
Islandia Croacia Iceland Croatia Antonio Mateu Lahoz 2905 3090 3242 0 0 0
Brasil Suiza Brazil Switzerland César Arturo Ramos 3487 3623 3735 0 0 0
Costa Rica Serbia Costa Rica Serbia Malang Diedhiou 3767 3930 4064 0 0 0
Brasil Costa Rica Brazil Costa Rica Björn Kuipers 3816 3962 4083 0 0 0
Serbia Suiza Serbia Switzerland Felix Brych 3593 3751 3881 0 0 0
Serbia Brasil Serbia Brazil Alireza Faghani 3366 3529 3663 0 0 0
Suiza Costa Rica Switzerland Costa Rica Clément Turpin 3535 3704 3842 0 0 0
Alemania México Germany Mexico Alireza Faghani 3583 3747 3881 0 0 0
Suecia Rep. de Corea Sweden South Korea Joel Aguilar 2663 2906 3100 0 0 0
Alemania Suecia Germany Sweden Szymon Marciniak 2847 3038 3194 0 0 0
Rep. de Corea México South Korea Mexico Milorad Mažić 2850 3035 3187 0 0 0
Rep. de Corea Alemania South Korea Germany Mark Geiger 3507 3704 3864 0 0 0
México Suecia Mexico Sweden Néstor Pitana 2781 2951 3089 0 0 0
Bélgica Panamá Belgium Panama Janny Sikazwe 2822 2980 3109 0 0 0
Túnez Inglaterra Tunisia England Wilmar Roldán 2806 2975 3113 0 0 0
Bélgica Túnez Belgium Tunisia Jair Marrufo 3082 3267 3419 0 0 0
Inglaterra Panamá England Panama Ghead Grisha 3765 3863 3944 0 0 0
Inglaterra Bélgica England Belgium Damir Skomina 3609 3761 3887 0 0 0
Panamá Túnez Panama Tunisia Nawaf Shukralla 3207 3377 3515 0 0 0
Polonia Senegal Poland Senegal Nawaf Shukralla 3451 3609 3739 0 0 0
Colombia Japón Colombia Japan Damir Skomina 2979 3222 3416 0 0 0
Polonia Colombia Poland Colombia César Arturo Ramos 3259 3433 3576 0 0 0
Japón Senegal Japan Senegal Gianluca Rocchi 3062 3237 3379 0 0 0
Japón Polonia Japan Poland Janny Sikazwe 3270 3484 3657 0 0 0
Senegal Colombia Senegal Colombia Milorad Mažić 2649 2868 3045 0 0 0
Uruguay Portugal Uruguay Portugal César Arturo Ramos 3291 3427 3539 0 0 0
Francia Argentina France Argentina Alireza Faghani 3081 3222 3339 0 0 0
España Rusia Spain Russia Björn Kuipers 3773 3937 4071 1243 1282 1317
Croacia Dinamarca Croatia Denmark Néstor Pitana 2896 3173 3392 1059 1114 1161
Brasil México Brazil Mexico Gianluca Rocchi 2826 3034 3202 0 0 0
Bélgica Japón Belgium Japan Malang Diedhiou 3330 3511 3658 0 0 0
Suecia Suiza Sweden Switzerland Damir Skomina 3052 3237 3389 0 0 0
Colombia Inglaterra Colombia England Mark Geiger 3092 3223 3331 943 1035 1113
Uruguay Francia Uruguay France Néstor Pitana 3107 3350 3544 0 0 0
Brasil Bélgica Brazil Belgium Milorad Mažić 3318 3459 3575 0 0 0
Rusia Croacia Russia Croatia Sandro Ricci 3118 3298 3445 775 846 906
Suecia Inglaterra Sweden England Björn Kuipers 2785 3045 3252 0 0 0
Francia Bélgica France Belgium Andrés Cunha 3387 3539 3664 0 0 0
Croacia Inglaterra Croatia England Cüneyt Çakır 2686 2963 3183 866 947 1016
Bélgica Inglaterra Belgium England Alireza Faghani 3974 4088 4183 0 0 0
Francia Croacia France Croatia Néstor Pitana 2812 3044 3229 0 0 0

Effective playing time in 2018 FIFA World Cup matches, with nominal, upper and lower range of estimated time shown. Data sourced from DataFactory LatAm.

During this World Cup the average effective playing time was between 52-58 minutes, which is a significant reduction from the 60-67 minute range of effective time at the 2014 World Cup. The averages remained stable from the group phase to the knockout rounds. The France vs Croatia final had about 15 fewer minutes of effective playing time than the 2014 Argentina vs Germany final despite — because? — having three more goals.

The five matches with the greatest amount of effective playing time in regulation were (times ordered by lower bound/nominal/upper bound):

  • Belgium vs England (3rd place match) – 66:14/68:08/69:43
  • Egypt vs Uruguay (Group A) – 63:15/66:27/69:02
  • Brazil vs Costa Rica (Group E) – 63:36/66:02/68:03
  • Saudi Arabia vs Egypt (Group A) – 63:44/66:00/67:52
  • Spain vs Russia (Round of 16) – 62:53/65:37/67:51

The five matches with the least amount of effective playing time in regulation were:

  • Nigeria vs Argentina (Group D) – 39:18/44:18/48:15
  • Morocco vs Iran (Group B) – 42:29/46:31/49:46
  • Portugal vs Morocco (Group B) – 43:12/46:58/49:59
  • Russia vs Saudi Arabia (Group A) – 42:26/47:32/51:33
  • Senegal vs Colombia (Group H) – 44:09/47:48/50:45

Only five matches went to extra time, so it’s possible to display their effective time metrics below:

  • Spain vs Russia (Round of 16) – 62:53/65:37/67:51, 20:43/21:22/21:57
  • Croatia vs Denmark (Round of 16) – 48:16/52:53/56:32, 17:39/18:34/19:21
  • Colombia vs England (Round of 16) – 51:32/53:43/55:31, 15:43/17:15/18:33
  • Russia vs Croatia (Quarterfinal) – 51:58/54:58/57:25, 12:55/14:06/15:06
  • Croatia vs England (Semifinal) – 44:46/49:23/53:03, 14:26/15:47/16:56

As I’ve written earlier, the calculation of effective playing time for this tournament is an inexact effort. Nevertheless, I believe that the final analysis will conclude that while this World Cup has been compelling in terms of storylines and drama, the amount of effective match time will be found to be less than the major soccer leagues and significantly less than the 2014 World Cup, which is looking more like a sui generis event.

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