Earlier this year I wrote about an incident at a Reading Town game, when the
referee blew for full time as his assistant referee was flagging for a foul in the
penalty area. Instead of ending the game the referee awarded Reading Town a
penalty.
A reader said to me, that while accepting a referee can change his mind,
as full time was within seconds of the foul, surely there wasn't time to take the
penalty kick.
Had the offence been outside the penalty area, that would have
been correct but the taking of a penalty is the only reason for which a referee
can extend time. Wait a minute, I can hear supporters saying, what about all
those minutes that referees add on, at the end of every half these days. But these
are not added on; they are an allowance for time lost. The referee still only plays
forty five minutes.
While on that subject, I find so many spectators at professional games, who
still think it is the fourth official who keeps the time and decides how many
minutes there are to play. There is only one timekeeper at a football match and
that is the referee.
So how does the referee work out how many minutes will be
played? Referees carry at least two watches. One watch will run normal time,
another he will use as a stop w^atch and stop it every time there is a delay, such
as substitutes, injuries, time wasting. Just before the free running watch shows
forty five minutes, he will check the stop watch which may show, for example,
forty three minutes. He will then signal to the fourth official, waiting at the
touchline with his electronic board, that he will be playing two minutes to make
up for time lost.
When a referee has qualified assistant referees, he will use them as an
additional check on time. That's why referees sometimes make an exaggerated
show of stopping their watch, to let the assistants know to stop theirs as well.
You don't get that in local football of course and two years ago, one of my three
watches stopped before the game, and my stop watch stopped for good during
the first half. In case my third watch should also give up, I asked the home
manager who was running the line, if he could keep a check on the time for me.
'I haven't got a watch,' he said, but out of his sports bag produced an alarm
clock. How he kept an eye on it I don't know but he gave me a signal when there
was five minutes to go.
If we go back to the penalty at Scours Lane, the law says 'Additional time is
allowed for a penalty kick to be taken at the end of each half or at the end of
periods of extra time'. So, if the match is extended beyond the correct time, when
does it then actually finish? The first situation is if a goal is scored, or the kicker
blasts the ball outside the posts or over the bar, then that half is over. It is also
over if the ball hits the crossbar or goalposts and rebounds into play. The same
is true if the ball is saved by the goalkeeper but rebounds into play as was the
case at Scours Lane. The penalty taker reacted quickly and put the ball into the
net at his second attempt but it was too late.
Some people try and simplify this
by saying the game is over, once the ball has finished its forward motion.
However there is one occasion when this is not true. If say, the goalkeeper dives
but the ball hits the goalpost, rebounds to hit his back and then goes over the
line, the goal would stand.
Dick Sawdon Smith