Question Number: 23387

Law 7 - Match Duration 5/28/2010

RE: grade 1 Adult

Liam Mc Guirk of Dublin, Ireland asks...

During our recent referees seminar a question was put to the panel and the answer given threw up some queries which could not be answered on the night so i am hoping some of your panel will give their opinion.

First the original question.After restarting the second half of the game and with ten minutes played the referee realises the teams have not switched ends, what does he do.
Answer.He stops play and and restarts the game with the teams playing in the right ends and any time played is wiped out and game starts with full 45mins to be played.

Now my question to you is, what if in the time played before he realises his mistake players are cautioned or sent off or a team scores, what is the action taken.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Referee McGuirk
This is not covered in the Laws of the Game and IMO it is a discretionary matter for the referee on the day. I personally would ask the teams to change ends and play the remaining 35 minutes with all goals / cautions / dismissals continuing to be counted. Another option would be to allow play to continue if there was no clear advantage to a team by not changing the ends being attacked. Whatever decision is made it should then be reported to the relevant competition authority. IMO it would be wholly inappropriate to wipe out 10 minutes of competitive play and the cautions/dismissals would most definitely have to count. Also should any goals be scored I cannot see any circumstance where teams are going to agree to them being cancelled.
A somewhat similar situation took place at a fraught Italian Serie B match between Foggia and Bari in 1999. After the second half had begun rival fans started to throw missiles at the opposing goalkeepers. In order to complete the match, the famous Italian referee Perluigi Collina asked both teams if they would be happy to continue the match from the end from which they had played in the first half. With the goalkeepers distanced from opposition fans, the match was completed without incident. The second half was not restarted just ends were changed. So there is some precedent.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

By wiping out the 10 minutes played, the referee will have violated Law 7, as the second half will now be 55 minutes. Since that is unacceptable, particularly if an event such as misconduct or a goal had occurred, the referee must use common sense. Restarting the second half with the teams in the correct half is not, IMO, a viable option. Law 8 does say the teams must change ends, and if they don't, a protest is possible, although if the field conditions are such that the teams are happy to stay in their current half, let it go, and include it in the report. Let the league sort that out.

One possible thing to do in that instance would be to switch the ARs, so that each team only spends 1 half with either AR. Or, if the teams wish to switch, or there are field conditions such as rain or wind or fans, at a stoppage, have the teams change ends. DO NOT restart the match until all players and keepers are ready to go. Changing ends at the point where the mistake is recognized is probably the simplest solution to an embarrassing situation besides simply leaving the teams where they are.

Frankly, it is hard to believe such a scenario is possible. No one, not the referee, not the ARs, not the teams, not the fans, not the coaches noticed the failure to change? Geez. I doubt they'd notice if they all stayed in the original half for the whole game.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Major violations of law 8 are not easily fixed, since the laws do not state a remedy. The match will be reviewed when the league's protest committee (PC) acts on the inevitable post-match protest. The referee must include full details in the match report to assist the PC in deciding what action to take.

Regardless, cautions and sendoffs count. Misconduct during halftime or when the ball is not in play is still punished. (Whether a substitute entering or a player who leaves during the "wrong way" interval is a "player" may depend on the fix.)

The referee has three options:
A) Abandon the match and report. A technocrat's answer, but not satisfying to players or administrators. It passes a problem created by the referee to the PC (to order a replay of the entire match). IMO, it is a very poor option for amateur matches. The players would rather play.
(B) Play the remaining time, and report. IMO, the better solution when too much time has run that it is impractical to start over. There seems no reason not to switch sides for the balance of the half. The PC would only have to focus on whether the failure to switch made a difference (sun, wind, field conditions) for ten minutes of play.
(C) Redo the entire second half, and report. IMO, the least practical solution, but also one that is the most technically correct since the laws were followed during the entire "official" second half. The PC will be happy if nothing noteworthy happened in the discarded ten minutes or in the last ten minutes of the half. But, something always happens, and the PC will have a difficult decision to make.