Question Number: 29209

Law 7 - Match Duration 2/26/2015

RE: Competetive Under 19

Lee of London, UK asks...

A penalty has been awarded. 4 mins injury time was added on and all 4 mins have now passed. The penalty is taken but keeper saves it but parries ball back to the taker who shoots and scores.
The referee awards the goal and signals end of play.
Should the referee have blown the whistle for end of play once the keeper saved it as all time was played.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi lee
I believe you might be referring to the penalty award in the Tottenham v West Ham game? If not it is a good example anyway of your question.
The penalty was awarded in the fifth minute of a minimum of five minutes added time. According to the BBC at 4.45. We do not know if the referee was adding on 5.10, 5.30 etc. All we know is that it was a minimum of five and that he wasn't adding on 6 minutes.
Now the Tottenham kick was taken some 54 seconds after the award of the penalty. That patently is far too long and the referee would be well entitled to add on further time for that delay. Think about it. Would be fair for a team to delay the restart in this situation so that play would end with the one kick and do you think that finding 3 seconds after taking 54 seconds to restart the game is unreasonable?
I feel that in these situations the referee is always going to allow a follow up particularly when the foul happened well inside whatever time was being added on.
This though must not be confused with the situation where the game has been extended to allow the kick to be taken. So lets say a penalty is awarded in say the last few seconds of a game. The referee would normally end the game yet he must extend the game to allow the kick to proceed. In that situation the penalty kick is the last kick of the game. Entirely different scenario and one that the referee would explain to the players.
I recall in the Everton v Leicester city game at the weekend the referee did not allow a corner kick to be taken as time had fully expired at half time. Everton players were none too happy at that decision and felt that a few seconds could be found to allow the kick.
As I mentioned in another answer it highlights that the timing method could be improved in games. In rugby the game clock is stopped by the referee for various incidents and at his discretion . No one knows how much added time is played nor are they bothered. When the clock reaches the allotted time say 80 minutes play continues until the ball goes out of play.
In this case the clock would have been stopped at 89.45 and the clock restarted when the kick was about to be taken. Play would then continue until the next stoppage which in this case would have been a goal. The game then ends. Would certainly do away with any debate about timing decisions.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Lee , we could just copy our answer off of question # 29206

which discusses the Tottenham penalty awarded in stoppage time! There BOB asks us the same query why was a goal permitted if time had expired?

The ...additional time... which is in the opinion of the referee the amount of squandered or unfairly lost playing time, is added onto the match is in of its self ACTUALLY part of the second half's 45 minutes of accrued playing time that must be played. Within the minutes of additional time tacked on it is still possible for the referee to stop /add time being wasted or squandered unfairly within that extra few minutes.

In a match which I added 10 minutes onto due to a lengthy injury that occurred early in the second half. I awarded a PK and had an injury stoppage in that 10 minutes of additional time! Which took 12 minutes to actually play! I added an additional 2 minutes to the time being wasted at the taking of the PK at about 3 minutes and a injury situation at about the 6 minute mark of added time.

If a referee had decided the match was OVER and he was permitting only the PK to be taken he would have told the players it is AN EXTENDED PK and no one including the PK kicker would have been able to play the ball. Given the rebound was scored meant the referee had ...NOT... yet ended the match! It meant the keeper ,as an opponent, had played the ball, so no 2nd touch violation and thus a good goal by the PK kicker!

To end the match on the goal being scored off the rebound meant the referee was allowing some time for play to be carried out but felt there was insufficient time to recover the ball for a kick off and get play restart. I should note, adding time for a goal being scored is unusual unless the celebrations are overly exuberant and prolonged.

Time added in rarely to the microsecond but in reality it is as unfair to extend past a certain point as it is not to play all of it. So we counter balance such deviations by thinking on which team is delaying and why as we wind down. ONLY for a PK can time be extended past the full 45 minutes.
Yet we often see a BIT more time found to get a free kick away or a bit of play after a missed PK simply due to the opinion of the referee that full time has not accrued and additional time to play was necessary.
Cheers