Question Number: 12201

Law 7 - Match Duration 2/14/2006

RE: AYSO & NFHS Under 19

Joyce Louden of Honokaa , Hawaii USA asks...

I have seen a guideline of how much time to add for different situations, but can not seem to find it in my numerous publications. An associate say 1 minute for each goal, which I think is excessive in a properly managed restart. I thought 20-30 seconds was closer. Do you know the rule of thumb for adding time?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Joyce,
ReF Marco is correct it is not specifically listed as a SET time simply because it is a series of discrestionary events subject to the duration and happenings of each event. Youth Matches as they have unlimited substitutions one could follow STRICT protocall to limit the wasting of time. If you notice at the scoring of goals how quickly the officials are there to contain and hurry the players back into kick off positions. The cautions for jersey removal and such things all are based on restarting quickly. Excessive delay at most any situation is considered but unfortunately in youth matches there are field schedualing problems where matches are not even permitted to run past a cetain time.
Cheers