Question Number: 26567

Law 7 - Match Duration 7/23/2012

RE: select Adult

mac of Sand, Id USA asks...

During tournament play, the game is two 30 min halfs. As with most tournaments, stoppage play is not added. During the championship game, one team scores a goal in the 32 minute. ( 30 min halfs ). This ties the game up, and the second the team kicks off, the ref blows the whistle and sends the game into kicks. It was brought to the attention to the AR, who agrees there is no stoppage play in the tournament. But to no avail.
What if anything can be done. The AR admits the goal was scored in the 32 minute..... This was a money tournament with $1500 at stake....

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
The referee, as per the Laws, acts as a timekeeper and keeps a record of the match. He is the sole judge of timekeeping and it is unlikely that any appeal on timing will be accepted unless irrefutable proof can be shown that 32 minutes was played instead of 30 as per the competition rules and without justifiable reasons. Most competition rules also state that the referee's decision is final.
I might add that while referees are encouraged NOT to add time by the rules of competition, no game in the world has ever finished without the need for some amount of added time. Time is lost for numerous reasons throughout each period of play and the spirit of the Law is that players are entitled to the entire designated playing time. If for instance a player was down injured on the field of play for the final two minutes of a game the referee IMO would be entitled to play the final two 2 minutes even in a fixed time game. Not to provide that remedy could encourage deliberate time wasting tactics in close games.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

I would say that there's not much that can be done.
When I referee, I hear lots of people talk about how much time has elapsed, and point to their watches as proof. Quite often people are very, very wrong - and that's even before we take into consideration stoppage time!

That's what the tournament organisers will need to keep in mind, so as Ref McHugh states, unless there's some sort of proof - or the referee admits it - then I can't imagine anything can be done about the result.