NWSL's new stoppage time rule simplifies job for referees, but saddles players with excessive playing time

As the 90th minute approaches in NWSL games this season, it is not uncommon to see the fourth official indicating double-digit minutes of stoppage time will be played out before the final whistle is blown, nor is it unexpected to see goals scored near the 100th minute of play. Those sights do not merely create an illusion of excessive extra time -- players are now being saddled with more minutes on a given day, all thanks to a rule change designed to simplify things that has now added a new layer of competitive fatigue in the sport.

The NWSL's 2024 rule change is in line with a FIFA mandate issued ahead of the 2022 men's World Cup, switching from a system of rough estimates to determine stoppage time to one that calculates and adds back each stoppage in play during the 90 minute match.

"This actually isn't new," CBS Sports rules analyst Christina Unkel noted in an appearance on CBS Sports Golazo Network's Morning Footy. "It's just being applied both in MLS and in NWSL this year. We saw it in the FIFA World Cup, in both the men's and women's World Cup, where there is essentially the direction that they're trying to capture every single lost minute of time when the ball is out of play."

Unkel notes that the application from competition to competition is different, though. Games at the 2022 World Cup averaged 11.61 minutes of stoppage time, up from 7.33 in 2018, per FiveThirtyEight, while others like the UEFA Champions League and the Premier League have seen similar growth but are less strict with their application. U.S. leagues like the NWSL and MLS, though, have opted for the most literal interpretation of the rule.

"You watch Serie A, you watch Premier League, they're not adding this much time," Unkel said. "However, the direction here domestically in the United States is to follow after the FIFA direction to add that time, so we are seeing some excessive amount of time. … Now with this FIFA mandate and us being really restrictive in counting each second, that is also assisted by the VAR. The VAR can see the time go, so once a goal was scored prior to, we would allow a minute to go last year in Major League Soccer. Now they're saying add that time every time a goal is scored from when the ball is then put back into play again so it's actually become more black and white."

The rule change was designed to remove the gray area from refereeing decisions and, above all, give teams the time back that they craved. It has led to some staggering statistics out of the NWSL this season, though -- the average amount of stoppage time per game stood at 15 minutes through the first nine weeks of play, while a total of 142 minutes of extra time were played across Labor Day weekend, an average of 20.29 minutes per game. The new batch of minutes has inspired new concerns around fixture congestion, a longtime issue in the men's game that has translated to the women's game in recent years.

NWSL teams will play more Games this year than in seasons past. The addition of two new expansion teams for 2024 saw the number of regular season Games jump from 22 to 26, while the expanded playoff format this year adds two more quarterfinal Games to the schedule. The Challenge Cup was downsized from a traditional cup comPetition to a one-off Game at the start of the season, but the league launched the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup during the Olympics break, adding three Games each to the calendar for all NWSL teams and two more for the finalists, NJ/NY Gotham FC and the North Carolina Courage.

Gotham, as well as the San Diego Wave and the Portland Thorns, are also all competing in the inaugural Concacaf W Champions Cup this season, which will see each team play four group stage games this season. Gotham could lead teams with games played by the end of the year with 38 should they make a run to this year's NWSL Championship, up from the 31 they played as they won their first league title in 2023.

The addition of accurate stoppage time, though perhaps well-intentioned, now feels like a hindrance to player welfare. From the beginning, critics of the new mandate warned that the excessive added time would only worsen conditions for players as they face unprecedented workloads, especially those balancing club and country commitments.

Unkel argued that the impact of the rule change should be reviewed, and that the onus of protecting players falls on more than just referees.

"This is something that FIFA should look [at] in their review committees of those individuals who are not referees necessarily, who are making these decisions," she said, "[and] should look at the impact it has on the physical nature of what you're demanding from these players."