Question Number: 24714

Law 7 - Match Duration 3/21/2011

RE: Competive Under 12

Chris of Copiague , NY Suffolk asks...

Can a game end with the ball in mid-air? Situation - corner kick awarded as soon as the ball is struck ref blows whistle to end the game that ball had not yet hit a player or the ground. Team losing by 1 goal in a single elimiation tournament is the one kicking the ball.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Well, it's happened at a far higher level than U12 - the 1978 World Cup by referee Clive Thomas.

The actions are totally correct per the Laws of the Game - and some local competitions and tournaments may make it worse by not allowing any additional time to be added to compensate for time lost.

But in most cases, our tracking of time is less precise than the exact second. The referee should either have ended the game before the corner kick was taken, or decided that there was a few seconds of time that had not been accounted for and stopped the game later.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Yes. The match is over when the referee says it is over.

Ref Voshol notes the most famous example in a World Cup qualifier. The ball went into the goal from the CK immediately after the whistle. The apparent goal was disallowed. The rest of the story: Mr. Thomas was never assigned another international match.

The book answer is that the referee's decision was within his power under Law 5.

The common sense answer is that the referee is given complete discretion regarding whether and how much to add time in a match. There is no stadium clock. IMO, a referee in such a moment should either end the match before the corner kick is taken, or be watching the players and the ball, not the referee's watch, while the ball is in the air.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Chris
The game is over when time has fully elapsed according to the referee. Many referees use a specially made referee stopwatch to keep track of time, stopping it for all time lost. When the watch reaches zero a buzzer vibrates on the wrist and these referees blow the whistle to end play no matter where the ball is.
In this case the referee was correct in Law. Some might not agree with that method but its up to the individual referee.
However no matter what timing method is used I have always said that the teams have 60 to 90 minutes to score and the 1st minute is as important as the last. Relying on added time is never a good position to be in and relying on one kick of a ball to tie the game in added time is not the referee's fault. If the ball went out for a series of corners would the team expect play to continue indefinitely!!