Question Number: 19520

Law 7 - Match Duration 6/26/2008

RE: Rec Adult

Paul Callaghan of Walkerton, Ontario Canada asks...

Im a novice soccer fan and have been following the Euro 2008 tournament. Im confused about how the extra time works. A friend of mine says that it is pre-defined as 15-minute halfs but I heard on a radio talk show that it is determined by the referee on-the-fly. Which one is right? Please explain.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

The Laws of the Game provide this:

PROCEDURES TO DETERMINE THE WINNER OF A MATCH OR HOME-AND-AWAY

Away goals, extra time and kicks from the penalty mark are the three methods approved for determining the winning team where competition rules require there to be a winning team after a match has been drawn.

Away Goals

Competition rules may provide that where teams play each other home and away, if the aggregated scores are equal after the second match, any goals scored at the ground of the opposing team will count double.

Extra Time

Competition rules may provide for two further equal periods, not exceeding 15 minutes each, to be played. The conditions of Law 8 will apply.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Perhaps your radio show was addressing the issue of compensating for time lost. The referee has discretion in that matter. Law 7 says,
'Allowance is made in either period for all time lost through:
. substitutions
. assessment of injury to players
. removal of injured players from the field of play for treatment
. wasting time
. any other cause
The allowance for time lost is at the discretion of the referee.'

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Paul, maybe it's an issue of terminology. 'Added time' is the time the referee adds back onto the end of a half of play to compensate for lost time (Law 7). 'Extra time' is a tie-breaking procedure which may be used by a competition to try and determine a winner. The amount of time in each period is up to the competition authority. In Euro 2008, the extra time is two 15 minute periods. In some youth tournaments, the extra time can be 5, 10 or 15 minute periods.

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

There are 2 different things we're talking about here...

1. Added time (aka- stoppage time, injury time). This is the amount of the time that the referee must add back onto the match at the end of each period of play for the time that was lost due to the causes listed in law 7 during that specific period. The referee determines this sometime just before the end of the period and that is announced by the 4th official by holding up a sign to indicate the minimum number of minutes to be added.

2. Extra time (aka- overtime in other sports) This includes 2 full 15 minute periods of play. Then there is added time which can also be tacked on to these periods of play.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

There are several stages of **time** in a soccer match!

The **Match time** is a 90 minute duration of 2 equal halves of 45 minutes.

In-between the two halves is a 15 minute intermission **half time** to rest, regroup and then switch ends.

**Added time** is the time the referees feels was not properly played in the half because the match playing time was used up to treat or assess an injury, make a substitution in a limited substitution setting, when either team engages in frivolous time wasting antics when the ball is not in play or ANY cause , as in replace a broken corner flag, fix a goal, lights go out in a stadium at night, weather delays etc..that causes time issues with a match where the match time is unfairly wasted.
The referee by law must ensure 45 full minutes of play time are used up in each half and uses the **added time ** to ensure that all 45 minutes are actually played..

**Extra Time** is another 30 minutes of two 15 minutes overtime periods that are used to decide a match that is tied at the end of the regulation 90 minute match time.
Here too **added time** again can be applied to each 15 minute segment to again ensure the full 15 minutes of each half's playing time is in fact used up.

There is another unit of time called **extended time** If a PK (penalty kick) is awarded BEFORE the match duration with the added time is all used up that PK MUST in law occur even if the match time with any added time is completely gone before the kick can occur, it is the only exception in free kicks that this is permitted thus time is extended to allow the PK to occur which ONLY applies to the time when all the match time is actually over.

Finally after all this if a match outcome is not decided at the end of all playing time the 90 minute regulation match duration with discretionary added time the 30 minute overtime with possibly more discretionary added time we have another time segment called (KFTPM) kicks from the penalty mark, which are only used to decide a result in competition play.

Each team has 5 shooters take a crack at the scoring a goal from the pk spot. If they are still tied, then sudden death where they shoot one for one pks until one team makes it and the other misses then a result is achieved!

Cheers