Question Number: 19719

Law 7 - Match Duration 8/11/2008

RE: Rec(ish) Adult

Ray of Perth, Western Australia Australia asks...

i was wondering about the time when the referee can blow the full time whistle; our game was tied at 4 all and we were in attack, we had just ran the ball up and on the edge of the box our player was basically lining up for a shot in the motion ready to kick and the ref blew the whistle for fultime. i was of the impression that the ball has to be kinda 'dead' in that it was't in a scoring position or, in defenders control or something. Is there an specific rule for this or is the ref alright to call it soon as his designated 'stoppage' time is up? cheers

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Time is up when time is up - that's the rule. The Laws say that the referee is responsible for keeping time, and for determining how much time must be added onto the end of the half to compensate for time that was lost. If the referee knows for sure that all time has expired, he should stop play.

Most referees will have better things to do than see the last few seconds tick off their watch while play is at an exciting moment. A referee who is staring at his watch rather than looking at play to see if things are going properly is not making a very wise use of his vision. That doesn't mean the referee extends things indefinitely; the ref would know that prior to your run toward the penalty area there was about 20 or 30 or whatever seconds left. When the ref is sure that time has expired, the whistle must blow. And sure enough, he looks down at his watch and finds he has given the attackers not only all the time they were entitled to, but an additional 5 seconds as well. Game's over. If your team had really wanted to score, they should have done it a few seconds sooner.

To extend the time any longer than what is valid may seem like the right thing to do for the attacking side, but what about the defenders? Why should they be forced to defend any longer than full time?

Answer provided by Referee Gene Nagy

Ray, I am not sure exactly how this referee kept time but here is what I do. I have a Casio 'Referee Timer'. It has a vibrate function amongst other things. I stop the timer for injuries, subs and other things and restart when the ball is play. This means that I always have the exact time left to play in the game. I do not have to look at my watch when time is up - I clearly feel the vibrate function and I simply blow the whistle when that happens.

I suspect this referee also kept time properly and when time was up he blew his whistle. The referee played 45 minutes and zero seconds. The Laws ask him to do that. There is no mention in the Laws to allow or take away a few seconds depending on play.

If the referee allowed a few extra seconds and a goal would have been scored the defending team would have been wronged.