Question Number: 23398

Law 7 - Match Duration 5/31/2010

RE: Rec-Classic Under 13

Drew DeGraff of High Point, NC USA asks...

I had a U12 CL game at a tournament. The two teams had both won a game and lost a game, so winning meant a lot. Team Blue was up by 1 goal. In the final 10 seconds of the game, the ball was kicked out of bounds by the White team. The Blue team took their time getting the ball, and seemed to be delaying the game. Time was expiring and I didn't want to end the game on a throw-in. The Blue play was lazily bouncing the ball as he walked up. As we were at a tournament and the games were tight on time, I hesitantly blew the whistle to end the game, but I wonder if I could/should have blown the whistle, cautioned the player for Delay of Game, and award an indirect free kick to the White team. With the ball being off the field, does that matter?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Referee Degraff
It all depends on the tournament rule regarding timing. Many tournaments have fixed time games without the discretion for the referee to add on for time lost. If that was the case then when the time expired that was the end of the game. The player could still be cautioned. I personally would not bother if it is not blatant and with only seconds left anyway it achieves very little.
In a regular game the referee should add on the time lost, perhaps caution the player for delaying the restart of play although a 'hurry up' call would be better and the restart does not change from a throw in.
As a general point once the ball is out of play the restart cannot change no matter what happens. A free kick both direct or indirect can only be awarded when the ball is in play.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

The question you have to ask yourself was whether or not the player's actions were blatant or not. It's not like he has a watch and can watch the seconds ticking away. If he's simply taking his time, it's hard to fault him, since there is nothing in the Laws which indicate a player has to run back to the field and immediately put the ball back into play.

But, if he saunters back up to the field, and suddenly decides he has to tie his shoe, or wait for one of the defenders to run the length of the field to throw it, or some such, especially in limited time games, you could be justified in issuing the caution. The question then becomes what did it buy you? Ten seconds is hard for me to worry about delay. A minute or two - I'd be heard encouraging the restart NOW.

You can't change the restart from a throw-in for Blue to an IDFK for white, even if you issued the card for misconduct, so yes it does matter. The restart remains for the reason that play was stopped, in this case a throw-in.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

If your tournament rule stipulates that no time is to be added on, then I think you're stuck without much you can do.

If you have the luxury of stoppage time, then simply consider this delay to be a stoppage, thus you can wait for the throw in to occur and at least a few seconds of play afterwards.

A card is an option if it's that blatant, though normally you'd want to try and hurry them up first.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Why didn't you want to end the game on a throw-in? The game is over when you say it is. Rather than caution the Blue team player I'd rather say in a loud voice, 'I'm adding time for all your wasting'. If it's a tournament and adding time is forbidden, the last thing I'd want to do is give the blue team even more time to waste by issuing a caution