At the World Cup in Qatar, the long injury times were noticeable in the first matches. This could soon also be the case in the Bundesliga – expects a former FIFA referee.

In future, fans of the Bundesliga will have to be prepared for longer injury times, as is currently the case at the World Cup in Qatar. This is the view of former Bundesliga and FIFA referee Knut Kircher.

“Major tournaments have always been a testing ground for certain innovations. This trend will certainly also arrive in the Bundesliga,” Kircher told the Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachrichten. The 53-year-old would welcome extended injury times in the Bundesliga.

“The length of games has always been a subject of debate. Longer injury times are, in case of doubt, the right approach to minimise discussions.” One restriction applies: if the game has long since been decided, the referees should not prolong the game for purely formal reasons.

At the World Cup in the desert, matches last much longer than the famous “90 minutes”. FIFA is cracking down on time-wasting. “We don’t want there to be only 42 or 43 minutes of active play in a half, that’s not acceptable,” refereeing chief Pierluigi Collina had said shortly before the tournament began. The Italian expects an average of “seven, eight, nine minutes of injury time” in Qatar.