Question Number: 17060

Law 5 - The Referee 10/3/2007

RE: junior Adult

catherine of liverpool, england asks...

can a referee change his desision after 20 minuets.

can a referee overturn a desision on a goal that he disallowed 20 minuets earlier

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Surprisingly yes, a referee can change his mind in some situations. As long as play has not stopped and then been restarted, and the game has not ended, the referee may change a decision.

On changing a disallowed goal to a goal, again it depends on what happened during those 20 minutes.

Why any referee would want to take 20 minutes to do such a thing is beyond the capabilities of my feeble brain. It seems very unwise, even if it is technically correct.

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

Generally speaking no referee SHOULD do this. However, in some very unlikely and rare circumstances, this kind of thing COULD happen.

The referee may change his mind regarding a decision until play has been restarted OR the match has been terminated. So, if during the 20 minutes the ball never went out of play for a throw-in, goal kick, corner kick, or a free kick (when the ref calls a foul) AND the game wasn't restarted after one of these things then the referee could change his decision on something.

Regarding disallowed goals. The only way I could see this happening is if the referee never stopped play and said that say, the ball never entirely crossed the goal line to score the goal - so he instructs play to continue. Then 20 minutes later (having had no other stoppages and restarts) the referee decides, "wait, you know I think the ball actually did cross the line, its a goal." In that case, yes he could change his mind. However, if the referee disallowed the goal due to some kind of stoppage, a foul or some such thing, and then the game is restarted, there is NO way he could come back and change his mind, unless he has determined that the restart was imporoper, which he should identify fairly immediately.

Practically, the answer is no. The referee should not change decisions made 20 minutes before. However, in theory it's possible, however unlikely.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Only if play has not stopped and been restarted during that entire 20 minutes. ALthough this is theoretically possible, it's not very likely.