Question Number: 15499

Law 7 - Match Duration 5/16/2007

RE: Select Under 12

Coach Rob of Jackson, MI USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 13378

In regards to question 13378, does the referee have to account for why stoppage time is as long as it is?

we were playing a U12 girls game and the halves are 30 minutes. well past 33 minutes a goal is scored and the half ends dead on the nose at 35. there were no injuries, and substitutions were a minimum, none of them being for a goalie. I asked the official if she played a 35 minute half. her answer was yes, to which I replied we only play 30 minutes in this division. her face was that of OOPS. She came up to me just before the start of the 2nd half and said that the goal was scored in the 33rd minute and that there would have been that much stoppage time anyway.

the long winded question then is: do I have the right to ask for what things happened to cause a 5 minute addition of play? consequently... we tied that match...

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

Referee can add as much time he feels necessary. Laws clearly say that it is the referees discretion on how much time is added onto a game. This is part of the responsibility given to the referee. He must make allowances for all time lost.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

You can ask but the referee doesn't have to line item it for you. There are many things to add time for; substitutions,ball being kicked far out of play, injuries, obvious time wasting etc.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

OK, here's how I view what happened. The referee made a mistake, and there's no way to undo that mistake. Once the kickoff was taken in the 33+ minute, that goal is in the books, it's history.

So she tortured herself all through the halftime interval, mentally beating herself for not confirming game time with the coaches - which is what refs for the youth leagues in MI have been instructed to do, there's just too many variations to remember them all. She comes up with a clever solution. There must have been at least 3 minutes lost time! (Even though she wasn't going to add any time if the half had been 35 minutes.) Problem solved.

The alternatives aren't pretty to contemplate. She could have written a lengthy report explaining her error, and hopefully sometime before June someone at the league would read it and realize there's only one thing to do - replay the game. Please schedule it before the season ends. Aaargh! Or the league could make up an arbitrary result - well, that goal shouldn't have counted, so we'll adjust the score to what it "should" be. The problem with that is the teams would have very likely played the second half in a different manner than they did, so we don't know what the score "should've" been. Or the referee could come out at halftime and say, "You know coach, you were right. Time was up, that goal doesn't count." Doing that would make the game protestable - trying to change history by going outside the Laws - and don't you think the team that thought they'd scored would protest?

One good thing that comes from all this - I'll betcha in the future the ref remembers to confirm how long games are played.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Check first, time second -- that way there are fewer mistrakes. The fact a bit time is added and why it was added is at the discretion of the referee. How much should not be a secret, but why any was added is. For the most, coaches and players try to waste it and they don't tell us why, they just do...

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

Whoops.

The answer is no, they do not have to itemize why time was lost - sorry!