Extra Time, Stoppage Time and Penalties Explained

Football's clock runs continuously, so the referee adds time to the end of each half to make up for interruptions: substitutions, injuries, goals, VAR checks and deliberate time-wasting. This is stoppage time (also called added or injury time), shown on the fourth official's board. It is a minimum, not a maximum — play continues until the current attack resolves.

Modern guidance asks referees to count interruptions precisely, which is why you now regularly see 8 or more added minutes where 3 used to be the norm. Those minutes matter. Across 554 matches of the 2026-27 season in our data, covering the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1, the Süper Lig and the Champions League, 131 of the 1,695 goals were scored in stoppage time, about one in thirteen. Ninety-nine of them came after the 90th minute, and the latest in the Premier League so far was Newcastle–Liverpool's, in the 9th added minute.

The Laws of the Game for 2026-27, in force from 1 July 2026, also try to cut the dead time that stoppage time has to repay. When the referee judges that a throw-in or goal kick is being delayed, a visible five-second countdown starts, and if the ball is not back in play the throw-in goes to the other team and a delayed goal kick becomes a corner. A substituted player has 10 seconds to leave the pitch, and a player treated on the pitch generally has to stay off for one minute after the restart.

Extra time is different: it is a full additional period of play used only in knockout matches that end level. It consists of two 15-minute halves played in full, with teams switching ends in between. Stoppage time is added to the extra-time halves too. On top of the five substitutes allowed in normal time, each team may use one additional substitute in extra time, with one extra opportunity to make changes. Including the short breaks before and between the halves, extra time adds about 35–40 minutes to a match.

If extra time cannot separate the teams, the match goes to penalties. Each side takes five kicks, alternating, from the penalty spot; if still level, the shootout continues one round at a time (sudden death) until one team scores and the other misses. Only players on the pitch at the final whistle may take part, and the shootout result officially records the match as a draw with a winner on penalties — relevant for statistics and betting settlements.

A shootout itself usually takes 10–15 minutes, longer if it goes deep into sudden death. So a knockout match that is decided on penalties typically ends about 2 hours 50 minutes after kick-off. Plan for nearly three hours on any cup night that could go the distance.