Question Number: 19216

Law 7 - Match Duration 5/27/2008

RE: Competetive Under 19

Marny of Paterson, NJ USA asks...

You are refereeing a tournament that has a "no extended time" rule. It's a 1-1 game and with a few minutes left Team A is mounting a furious attack, getting off shot after shot.

With a minute left a player on Team B fouls a player on Team A hard at just outside the penalty box. The fouled player is slow in getting up. You issue a yellow card to Player on Team B and stop play to book the player and have a word with him. While you are booking the player, time expires.

It would seem wrong for Team B to benefit from foul play, but tournament rules say no added time. Would you add time in the interest of fairness or stick to the tournament rule book?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The law of unintended consequences strikes again. Tournament officials had a "good idea" - if they don't add time, the schedule won't lapse, so more games can be played per field per day, so more teams can be invited, so more revenue will be raised.

If a referee accepts an assignment at a tournament with such a rule, the ref is expected to enforce the rule. Since the tournament made the rule, they can deal with the consequences.

Maybe, just maybe, your watch batteries are wearing down, and your watch is running just a little bit slower than anyone else watching the game?

Answer provided by Referee Gene Nagy

Marny, in Hoboken, Nj, USA or Spuzzum, BC, Canada, tourneys have to run on time. It is pretty standard to have this rule and unscrupulous coaches WILL take advantage of it sometimes. However, in your example, the referee is not required to stop time. Cautions and send-offs are not things the referee needs to stop time for. There is an item "for any other reason" which could apply and some referees do invoke that for such a reason. John Nielsen, a Canadian National instructor and retired FIFA A/R, has specifically stated that it is not customery to stop time for reds and yellows.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

By "no extended time" do they mean we can't give a PK at the end of the game? Tsk. Doubt any referee would agree to that condition on a game. If they mean you cannot add back in time lost during play, if you accept the assignment, you understand this. However, tournaments don't always run on time, due to injuries, ablility to get referees to games, to any number of causes. A referee can always make a little room if fairness demands it, but don't be the schedule breaker - assignors remember!

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

I could not referee in such circumstances! Unless they signal with a horn, time is my discretion and as long as there is a reason to think time is there, schedules will have to wait momentarily. I get the fact extended times are not going to fly well given the tightly scheduled tournaments but the truth is the MAIN reason soccer in this country is not at world status is we play TOO many games and not enough practises. Think about how many games there are, how many tournaments there are, how many weekends there are in the summer with either, high school, state, tournaments, special cups, or multiple high level games taking place, and it doesn't take long to figure out where the shortage of refs come from, or shortage of instructors or assessors. In my opinion too many referees do TOO many games just as the players play too many matches. So how hard is it to find too little time?
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

Practically, if you're a grass roots referee, you're probably fairly interested in refereeing any game you can do, because you enjoy it. Tournaments also have the added bonus of more games, more teams, and more money! So a decision as to whether or not you will referee the games isn't really a decision you even think about.

Sure, I do just as Ref Dawson now, after refereeing a lot of games, and I skip all of the tournaments that have this proviso. For you, that's probably impractical. So I won't hold that against you.

Out of fairness, you should give all the lost time back if you thought the misconduct occured simply to force the rest of the time to run out.

However, the tournament has specified what their rule is. They must live with the choices of their actions to interfere with the laws of the game. When you agree to referee a game under special rules or conditions, you agree to abide by their adaptations. So when they say that the tournament is "running time" and that means you're not supposed to add time on at the end, just do that.

When the one team complains, you can confidently explain, "Yes coach, I agree that you should be entitled to that time back, that was unfair of them to do that in those circumstances. However, the rules of this tournament specify that I have no discretion or leeway for adding time onto the end of the game. Because of that rule, I cannot give you the time back."

If you decide you don't want to be invited back to the tournament, you could add, "and if you don't like the rule, please direct your comments directly to the tournament director and referee assignor. I'm sure they will be happy to assist you."

:)