It’s funny how one idea triggers another. I wrote last week that the International FA Board are considering a suggestion that they copy rugby and allow players to be treated on the field of play whilst the game continued. The idea is of course that it would prevent the game being continually stopped for what often turns out to be faked injuries. The
Post was hardly on the streets when I received a phone call asking why I hadn’t mentioned another rugby rule concerning time for stoppages, which could usefully be transferred to football.
The caller was Bob Tutton, former headmaster of Springfield school in Tilehurst who refereed himself in his younger days. His suggestion was to have a large clock in the stadium that would be stopped every time there was a stoppage in the game, Everyone could then see exactly how much time there was to go. The game would finish when the clock said so.
I reminded Bob that football referees do stop their watches for stoppages in the game and in the highest leagues, the fourth official holds up the board to show spectators how many minutes there are remaining. ‘I accept that,’ he said, ‘but we don’t know how he reached that decision and sometimes they show say, three minutes and the game goes on for five.’
The answer to that is simple of course. All referees have two watches; one will be allowed to ‘run’ whist the other will be stopped every time there is a relevant stoppage. At half or full time, the amount of ‘added’ time is the difference between the two, which the referees indicates to his fourth official to show to spectators. But this is only the minimum time and it can be extended if there are more stoppages, perhaps injuries or substitutions, during the ‘added on’ period. Bob still felt that a clock would be more transparent for everyone.
There are, as I tried to explain, some difficulties over this. First of all, FIFA are adamant that the laws of football are administered the same where ever the game is played and the last time I looked at Prospect Park, none of the pitches had a large clock alongside them. I think the cost and logistics would rule out any likelihood of this ever happening.
As it is, Referees on local parks, time the game exactly the same way as those on Premiership games but they don’t have a fourth official or a board to show time remaining. They do, however, tell the players who are constantly asking ‘how long to go ref?’
It also has to be said that there is a subtle difference in the law on timekeeping from that which is in use in rugby. A rugby game does not finish the moment time is up. It actually goes on until the ball is next out of play, no matter how long that may take. Followers of the oval ball game will tell you that the Six Nations Championship this year was decided by a try scored in the period after time had expired.
So the time on the clock is not as critical as in football. Imagine the ball travelling towards goal at a football match, just about to go in the net as the stadium clock shows time is up. There would be no end of discussion, not to say argument, about whether the goal should be allowed or not.
Sir Alex Ferguson once famously asked, ‘Can anyone tell me why they give referees a watch? It’s certainly not for keeping the time.’ As the law stands, it doesn’t matter what Sir Alex or any other manager thinks. ‘The referee,’ it says, ‘acts as timekeeper and the allowance for time lost is at the discretion of the referee’. Sorry Bob, that’s how I think it should remain.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2007