Here's why the England-Iran World Cup match saw 23 minutes of injury time across 2 halves

England began their FIFA World Cup 2022 campaign with a bang as they ran riot against Iran in their first group stage game with an emphatic 6-2 victory. Star Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka scored a brace while Jude Bellingham, Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish scored a goal each. Meanwhile, Mehdi Taremi scored a brace for Iran.

While the England vs Iran clash was hugely eyecatching, with the Iran national team also staying silent during their National Anthem purportedly in support of the anti-govt protests in their country, another talking point was an unusual amount of a total of 24 minutes being added as injury time at the end of both halves.

Why were 24 minutes injury time added in England vs Iran clash?

An exciting first half of the England vs Iran clash was marred by an unfortunate head injury to star Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand that resulted in a staggering 14 minutes of extra time. The 30-year-old suffered a nasty injury with blood flowing down his face after he attempted to block a dangerous cross when he crashed into his own teammate.

To everyone's surprise, Beiranvand was permitted to carry on even though concussion protocols clearly indicate that a footballer must immediately be removed if they suffer a serious knock to their head. The Iranian goalkeeper was eventually substituted after he went down again a few minutes later. Beiranvand was down for about six minutes, while the whole incident consumed at least 10 minutes of normal time.

FIFA's protocol on concussion substitutes states, "The primary focus of the initial on-pitch assessment of a player who has sustained head trauma during training or match play is to screen the player for a concussion or a more severe head or cervical spine injury." In case the assessment deems that a player has suffered a nasty knock to the head, they must be immediately substituted.

As for the second half, another additional 10 minutes was added to the surprise of many. While there were no significant stoppages other than a short delay when Harry Maguire went down in the second half, there were five goals scored. Several reports in the build-up to the World Cup claimed that FIFA was planning to extend games to 100 minutes or more to accomodate for the time lost during celebrations, injuries, etc. While FIFA denied such reports, this could still be a potential reason for the added minutes.