The first half of England-Iran seemed to never end.
As he reached the 45th minute, the screens at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium announced 14 minutes of added time.
And there the public timer stopped.
Almost a quarter of an hour without references neither for the public nor for the players of when that could end.
In the opening game, Qatar-Ecuador, 10 minutes were added, 12 in the Senegal Netherlands, 14 in the United States-Wales, and 10 more in the second half of England-Iran.
In total, 60 added minutes in the first four games, a quarter of an hour on average.
This is how it will continue to be throughout the tournament, and it cannot be said that they have not warned.
On Friday, Pierluigi Collina, president of the FIFA Referees Committee, appeared in Doha to announce his union's plans for this World Cup.
Expect 100-minute matches, he announced.
Governing bodies have been concerned about effective playing time for years.
In La Liga, for example, the ball is in motion for an average of 52 minutes per game.
The IFAB has also studied the phenomenon, and has introduced modifications to lighten the stoppages, such as that the substituted footballers leave the field at the point that is closest to them.
But in Qatar, Collina has encouraged meticulousness to be expressed.
On Friday he explained that he had instructed the referees so that the additions in each part are as long as they consider necessary.
They are going to watch until the celebrations: "If two or three goals are scored, three or four minutes are lost," said the Italian.
In the England-Iran match, the longest in the World Cup so far, eight goals were scored (6-2).
In addition, in the 7th minute of the first half, the goalkeeper, Alireza Beiranvand, came out to clear a lateral cross from the English and collided with his teammate Majid Hosseini.
The goalkeeper was left lying on the grass for several minutes, bleeding from his nose.
They managed to stop the bleeding, he got up, moved around the area a bit, and jumped back onto the grass.
So they replaced it.
That game, the second of the championship, was especially peculiar due to the number of goals and the mishap of the goalkeeper, but, according to the referees' objectives, in all matches you can wait at least those 100 minutes announced by Collina.
Because the referee's visits to the VAR screen at the foot of the field are also going to be more common.
Collina's committee has transmitted to the referees of all the federations that FIFA's intention is not to miss a single dubious play, so they must be prepared to be called to the monitor more than they are used to.
FIFA will stick to its goal of providing more effective playing time, but it introduces an element of disorientation for spectators in stadiums: the timer stops at the 90th minute. From there, it's impossible to tell how close you are to the end. , or how much time a team has to come back, for example.
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