Adding so many extra minutes over a full season is bad for players' health: Uefa

Uefa does not want Champions League games to match the World Cup with double-digit minutes of stoppage time that its top soccer official called “absolutely absurd” on Wednesday.

Adding so many extra minutes over a full season is bad for players’ health, Uefa Chief of Football Zvonimir Boban said.

“Player welfare is really some kind of small tragedy,” Boban, a former AC Milan and Croatia star midfielder, said at a Uefa briefing on refereeing issues on the eve of the Champions League group-stage draw.

Fifa pushed referees at the men’s and women’s World Cups in the past nine months to let the game clock routinely run from the regulation 90 minutes to 100-plus in the second half.

Fifa wanted all goal celebrations, substitutions, injuries and suspected time-wasting taken into account.

The policy has been backed by Fifa president Gianni Infantino saying it gave fans better value for money amid concern the ball was in active play for as few as 50 to 55 minutes at many games.

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