Question Number: 31246

Law 1- The Field 2/9/2017

RE: Recreation Adult

R.embleton of Darlington, Co.durham England asks...

Can a game of football and a game of rugby be played side by side at the same time?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
I see no reason why not. The only issue in my opinion will be the use of whistles by referees and whether the whistling could affect play adversely such as a player thinking that the referee has stopped the game with a whistle from the other pitch. I have refereed games on pitches side by side and I just picked a different whistle tone and whistled less as did my colleague. No issues arose.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

It is common to have multi-pitch venues where several football games are going on side-by-side. For instance, in the past I used to participate in the two largest youth football tournaments in the world, the Gothia and Norway Cups, with over 1500 teams taking part. These had various multi-pitch venues with games going on simultaneously. If I recall correctly, the Ekebergsletta field complex used in the Norway Cup has around 30 fields, all side-by-side (or back-to-back). You can see an image of some of them on the link below:

http://www.norveska.org.rs/News_and_events/News-and-events1/Norway-Cup-2015The-worlds-largest-football-tournament/

The famous Hackney Marshes area in London is even bigger, containing 88 football pitches.

If football matches can be played alongside each other, I see no reason why a football and a rugby match couldn't.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

This is a fairly common scenario in some parts of Australia!

Whether another sport is played in the vicinity isn't the concern of the referee - it's simply whatever arrangement is made with the organisation hiring the parks.