The Chairman of FIFA’s Referees Committee, Pierluigi Collina, answers the question that has been puzzling many during this FIFA World Cup.

“At the end of each half, information comes from the Video Match Officials and the Fourth Official, and the referee adds these and decides the amount of time to be added,” he explained.

“If you look back to four years ago in Russia, the average stoppage time was added was six-and-a-half minutes. And if we adapt, considering there were six substitutions [possible] compared to ten, the four extra substitutions would mean one extra minute. So we went from seven-and-a-half minutes to ten minutes, which is not a dramatic change."

There is, Collina says, one clear benefit to the subtle tweaking of the way stoppage time is calculated.

"What if offers us is the possibility so far to have, on average, almost 59 minutes of active time played," he continued. "And I repeat: it’s not that dramatic a change to watch the matches and be entertained.

“It’s like when you attend a concert - you’re happy, and you ask for an encore from the singer. And I think it’s important to offer the spectators in the stadiums and watching on television good entertainment.”