How long is a professional soccer game ? Have you noticed that some soccer games go on for longer than others? There is stoppage time, sometimes extra time, and even a penalty shootout. That begs the question: how long does it take to watch an entire match?

A soccer game takes around 2 hours: 90 minutes of game time — two 45-minute halves plus stoppage time with a 15-minute break. In specific cases, to break a tie, it goes into extra-time: two 15-minute halves plus stoppage time with a 1-minute break. If that’s not enough, there’s a penalty shootout.

How Long Is a World Cup Soccer Game?

A World Cup soccer game is 90 minutes long. It consists of two 45-minute halves with a running clock. After each half, the referee adds stoppage time to compensate for time lost. For the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, referees were instructed to be more rigorous, making stoppage time longer than usual.

Why So Much Extra Time in World Cup 2022?

There was so much extra time (stoppage time) added to each game in the FIFA World Cup 2022 due to new refereeing instructions to more accurately measure match stops for time wasting, substitutions, penalties, red cards, video assistant referee decisions, and goal celebrations.

For Qatar 2022, officials received a new directive to be more rigorous in gauging the amount of time lost and adding it back to the end of each half.

This new instruction came from Pierluigi Collina (possibly the best referee in soccer history) — chairman of FIFA’s referees committee.

Collina says this measure was introduced to ensure more active time, even if added time is longer than the previous average of 3.5 minutes for each half.

All time-wasting situations need to be compensated at the end of each half. There isn’t an official table, per se, but the recommendation from FIFA regarding time wasters is as follows:

Goals: Each goal should be compensated with 1 to 1.5 minutes of stoppage time.

Injuries: Each time the game stops for medical assistance, there should be 1 extra minute, on average, added to the overall stoppage time.

Substitutions: Every substitution represents an extra 45 seconds of additional time given.

VAR: Video Assistance Referee checks should be compensated in total.

Cards, Set Pieces, and Penalty Kicks: One additional minute of stoppage time at the end of the same half.

How Long Is a Professional Soccer Game?

A professional soccer game is 90 minutes of full game time, both in men’s and women’s soccer. It consists of two equal periods or halves lasting 45 minutes. Between each period, there is a half-time interval which is 15-minutes long.

IFAB (International Football Association Board) — the governing body that writes the “Laws of the Game” — regulates professional soccer.

Every year this entity adds, alters, or updates the rules of association football to ensure the safety of players as well as make the game as exciting as possible for the fans.

Law 7: The Duration of the Match pertains to the duration of professional soccer matches and dictates that every game is composed of two halves of 45 minutes plus additional time added by the referee, as needed.

How Long Professional Soccer Games Take

When we mention “professional soccer games”, we are talking about high-profile games in leagues and tournaments that take place across the world. This could be professional club soccer such as the EPL, Bundesliga, and so on. It could mean international professional soccer.

A full professional game can take up to 111 minutes. This is broken down into 45 minutes per half. You then have to add injury time to each half which is approximately 3 minutes on average, it could go all the way up to 10 minutes. You also have to include 15 minutes for the halftime break. That gives you a total average of 111 minutes.

How Long Is Extra Time In A Professional Soccer Match?

In the section above, we did not take into account knockout soccer games. This is because a knockout tournament will have different rules depending on the tournament. However, there is a general rule that most competitions stick to.

Extra time is broken down into two halves. These halves will generally be up to 15 minutes with 1 minute of injury time for each. There is also a five-minute break between the two halves. This gives you a total of 39 minutes of extra time.

How Long Major League Soccer Games Take

Major League Soccer is also a professional soccer league. It is the biggest club league in the United States of America and also includes Canada. It is best to think of this league like the Premier division. It has the best teams in the country. Let’s take a look at how long a Major League Soccer game takes.

In a major league soccer game, there are two halves of 45 minutes each. There is a break of 15 minutes in between. At the end of each half, the 4th official and the ref can decide how much injury time there will be. This is usually 3 minutes on average. So, a full game takes approximately 111 minutes.

How Long College Soccer Games Take

College soccer is very similar to professional soccer. After all, it is from here that the best players will move on to either the MLS or another professional League somewhere in the world. This means that the amount of time a soccer game takes is similar to the MLS and other pro leagues.

In college soccer, you can expect the match to last 90 minutes with two halves being 45 minutes each. Sometimes the referee will add extra time to each half. However, in college soccer, they can stop the clock so we will not include that. When we add the 15-minute break between the two halves, you can expect a college soccer match to last 105 minutes.

How Long High School Soccer Games Take

High School soccer is a lot more tricky in terms of time. This is because each region has its own set of rules and because each age group generally has a different time. In High school, a half can be either 35 or 40 minutes for students 14 and older. So, we will stick with 40-minute halves.

In terms of regular time, a high School soccer game will be 80 minutes long. Injury-time is added if the referee sees fit and this will be approximately 2 minutes. You then have a 10-minute break in between both halves. So, the average high school soccer game takes approximately 95 minutes in total

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