Question Number: 24017

Law 5 - The Referee 9/25/2010

RE: Under 10

steve feinberg of Dix Hills, NY United States asks...

does a referee need to blow the whistle to end a game? It appears to read that way in the FIFA rules, but wanted to make sure if that is the case. Thanks very much

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Steve
Yes most definitely. Indeed it is advisable to make a distinctive signal at that time and the accepted norm has become two/three blasts of the whistle.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

It used to be there was no specific indication the referee used to signal the end of the game. Another case was when a penalty kick could be kicked.

But several years ago IFAB added a section at the end of the Laws of the Game (not printed in the USSF edition, but downloadable from fifa.com) regarding the use of the whistle. The whistle was made mandatory for several situations, including the end of the game/half.

But even before then, the whistle was used to end the half. If the ref didn't whistle, how would the players know they should stop playing?

Edit: I actually ended a half today without a whistle. There was a foul resulting in a penalty kick just seconds before I determined time was expired, including compensation for lost time. I explained to the boys that the half was over, we were only going to take the PK, and there would be no followup on a rebound. (It scored, so we didn't have to worry about that.) Once I indicated the goal, it seemed kind of silly to blow the whistle for the end of the half. This might be an exception to blowing the whistle. Although page 76 of the Laws says a whistle is needed to stop play "when a period of play has ended due to the expiration of time". If play was not going on at the time, you wouldn't have to stop it, so you could conceivably use some other method of informing them that the half was over.

Answer provided by Referee Gene Nagy

Steve, the short answer is yes, the whistle must be blown but since you ask a seemingly obvious question, I wonder why you are asking it. It is possible that a game ends without a whistle but the circumstances have to be pretty unusual. In some situations when a referee abandons the game, say after a big brawl, there may not be a need for a whistle. If the game is stopped for lightnening and eventually not restarted, again no whistle is used. Same thing if the lights go out and the game is discontinued.
There are certain times when the whistle is not needed in the course of the game. If the ball clearly sails over the touch line or goal line, the referee would indicate the restart and not blow the whistle because everybody in the park already knows that the ball went out of bounds.