Question Number: 25737

Law 7 - Match Duration 11/11/2011

RE: REC Under 10

A.J. Mays of Burkburnett, TX USA asks...

During a game the half went another 15 mins over the 15 min set time. When questioned why the ref replied i added time because of excessive subbing by the coach. Can a ref add time and if so what are what guide lines, and how much?1

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi AJ
The referee is the sole judge of time.
The Laws state that 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
In this case the referee was perfectly entitled to extended the period of play with added time for substitutions. The referee is the sole judge of what that amount of added time is.
As an example if say in the last five minutes a coach made say 5 substitutions which took say in total 1 minute to complete through the removal of players and play restarting then that 1 minute is playing time lost and the referee must allow for it. Other sports simply stop the clock such as in basketball, football, rugby etc whereas in soccer the clock continues and the time is added on. It amounts to the same just a different way of calculating it

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

15 minutes seems excessive in an U10 match without injuries or a very unusual incident.
The laws of the game, however, grant the referee complete discretion about how much time to add - - - with the hope that the referee will use the discretion wisely. While the decision stands, the team may want to discuss the incident with the league administrators.