England fans have all been asking the same question for UEFA after last night’s (14 July) defeat to Spain.
Look, we’re still getting over it – it’s not coming home after all.
The Three Lions lost out on lifting the Euro 2024 trophy after a late second goal took our opponents into the lead.
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And despite a whole load of criticism for Gareth Southgate during the tournament, Jamie Carragher hit out with the ‘fact’ as to why we 'didn’t win the Euros yet again'.
But as the confetti settles on the football pitch in Berlin, fans have a big complaint as they reckon our final hopes were scuppered by UEFA and the referee.
Four minutes of added time was placed on to the second half, but many England supporters bemoaned the lack of actual play following the 90 minutes being up.
During that time, match referee Francois Letexier blew for a couple of fouls as the Spain players wasted time, riling up England fans.
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But fans were then shocked when he blew the final whistle pretty quickly after the fourth minute was up.
Users complained on X: “Not sure what’s crazier, the fact that the ref only gave four minutes of added time, or the fact that he called time immediately after four minutes when the ball was only in play for one of those minutes.”
And one even worked it out himself, timing on his phone how long the ball was apparently in play for during the extra time.
“Amount of time the ball was in play for injury time btw. 4 minutes added, 66 seconds played,” he wrote alongside a screenshot of an Apple timer displaying: “01:06.04.”
Someone else complained: “Well that’s really really sad but I have no idea how the ref has blown there when they’ve wasted 3 minutes of added time.”
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While another said: “Wouldn’t have changed anything but what a disgrace from the ref, 4 minutes added time, 3 minutes of the ball out of play. Blows whistle right at 94 In a cup final, shocking.”
A third pointed out the issue with it, adding: “It's not the reason England lost, but the UEFA system where no added time is ever added on in stoppage time is a joke.”
The referee has the ability to increase the additional time but not reduce it - as it is a minimum.
UEFA previously criticised last year’s Premier league rule change to add on the exact time lost to goal celebrations, substitutions, injuries, penalties and red cards to the 90 minutes.
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And this obviously led to us seeing a whole load of stoppage time being added to matches.
But UEFA called this ‘absurd’ as its chief refereeing office said they tell the referees ‘to speed up the restart of play instead of focusing on stoppage time’.
LADbible has contacted UEFA for comment.
Jess Battison