Football matches are fast and keep moving from end to end. The standard duration of a football match is 90 minutes which is equally divided into two halves of 45 minutes. 

Some time gets added on in both halves due to stoppages and injuries to players depending on the interruptions during the game. This is called injury time or added time.

Teams that are inseparable at the end of 90 minutes, wherein both teams have either scored the same number of goals or remained goalless, in a league or a group stage match of a competition share a point each.

But when it comes to a knockout match where only one team can proceed further, extra time in football has to be used to determine a winner. Here, we look at what is extra time in football.

What is extra time in Football

When two teams remain inseparable after 90 minutes and injury time in a knockout match, referees use extra time to see whether the teams can score a goal and win the match.

Extra time was first included in the rules written by the Football Association, the governing body of Football in England, in 1897.

Teams are allowed an extra 30 minutes split into two halves of 15 each, to see if they can eke out a winner. Both halves of extra time are separated by a break of five minutes.

Teams are also allowed an extra substitute to be made specifically in extra time apart from the five substitutes in three stoppages of play normally allowed during the game.

If the deadlock continues even after 30 minutes of extra time then the referees proceed to a penalty shootout where teams face off against each other in a penalty shootout to decide the eventual winner.

Variations of extra time in football

The Golden Goal and Silver Goal alternatives were tried out at the turn of the century in the UEFA Euros and in the FIFA World Cup. 

Extra time would start after 90 minutes of regulation time. But the match was stopped with the first goal scored during extra time with the team scoring it being declared as the winners. Hence, the deciding goal was called the Golden Goal.

In the Silver Goal variation, the game would not stop immediately if a team scores. The scores at half time of extra time are taken into account. If a team is leading the other at half time, the game ends there with the team leading declared as the winner. 

But if the teams are level at half time, then the match continues similar to a normal game with extra time.

After being used in two or three editions of the Euros and the World Cup, both the Golden Goal and Silver Goal rules were shelved in major competitions.

However, in some competitions, teams jump straight to penalties after regulation time without playing the extra time. 

Copa America 2024 will also see teams going into a penalty shootout in the eventuality of a drawn score in the quarter-finals, semi-finals or third-placed game. 

In the final, the teams will play 30 minutes of extra time before proceeding to the penalty shootout if they are inseparable after 90 minutes.

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