With its long history, football exists with one of the basic factors being the official playing time of 90 minutes, divided into 2 sets. If in the knockout rounds, the match could be dragged into a 30-minute extra time (divided into 2 rounds) and a penalty shootout if they still do not match.
That would have lasted forever if there had been more forms of entertainment in recent times. Football, after all, is just a form of entertainment like other sports. However, recently, there have been more opinions that, in today's era, 90 minutes for a match has become too long.
Therefore, the proposal to change and shorten the time for each match has also been made. Of course, with such issues, debate and controversy are inevitable. But when it is an idea, it is still necessary to look at many perspectives to evaluate.
Former defender Gerard Pique is a strong supporter of change when he affirmed that 90 minutes for a match is too long.
In this era, football has to compete for entertainment with other content, on other platforms such as TikTok, Netfilx or YouTube... Not everyone has a lot of time and a 90 minute match is too long, Pique said.
The former Spaniard himself admitted that he did not often watch the full 90 minutes of matches, including Barcelona - his former team, but only about 30 to 40 minutes.
However, he was able to watch a full season of NBA basketball. A basketball match usually has 4 sets of 10 minutes each. The gap between the sets is 2 minutes (season 1 and half 2, half 3 and half 4) and 15 minutes (season 2 and half 3). That is, the total duration of a basketball match is about 60 minutes.
Also football, futsal every 20 minutes, but the problem is that the time is only counted when the ball rolls, so it takes about 70-80 minutes to finish the match. And because futsal only plays 5v5, in a narrow space, it feels faster and more continuous.
So, why is a tennis match that can last up to 4 or 5 hours more exciting than a football match? Because like basketball or futsal, the match takes place in a moderate space, with only 2 players, so the concentration is higher, the ball situations are more diverse, more surprising.
It is not too much to say that even those who do not agree with Pique's point of view have at least once in their life experienced the feeling of going through 90 minutes "like torturing" in a match.
Because boredom makes 90 minutes really long... And the feeling will be a disappointment when patience waits for the end with a 0-0 draw.
In a world with an increasingly dense competition schedule, too much running time and limited recovery time, shortening the match is also an idea to ensure the health of the players.
In addition, there are other reasons, such as geographical differences that make many fans watch night football - such as in Vietnam watching matches in Europe for example, and when it is over, they are preparing for work.
Of course, it is not a common problem for the whole world to change, because if the time is shortened, the scale of the team's personnel will also have to decrease, leading to a series of financial activities that will certainly be smaller than at present. No one wants to go backwards.
In fact, the world football rules Association (IFAB) has also made some proposals for innovation in recent times, but everything needs to be studied and needs time to be applied. Maybe one day the match will be shortened, but not yet.
In addition to Pique, Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has also proposed to increase the size of the goal. The size of the citadel has not changed since 1875, when it seemed a bit wide. 50-60 years later, it seems reasonable.
But now, when you look at the physical condition of goalkeepers or athletes in general, it makes you think. In volleyball, people are also discussing increasing the height of the net.
30 years ago, there were about 10 goals from 50 long-range shots, but today there are only 3. It is difficult to score from a long-range shot if there is a 2-meter-high goalkeeper in goal."
