Last night, I was playing in a tournament game that went to penalty shots. Both teams had taken 2 shots each, with Team A leading Team B 2-1. Then, the lights on the field went out, and play could not continue. What's the ruling here?
up to the competition authority. not covered in the lotg. and, as unusual as the situation is, i would guess that the rules of competition did not forsee the event happening. so, the competition authority would need to make a ruling. if possible, continue kftpm the next day (or whenever possible). if not possible, declare a winner based upon results as they stood when lights were lost.
Thanks for the help. Unfortunately, the guy who runs the league is on the team that was behind 2-1. My team had eked out a 1-1 draw despite being largely outplayed (the team beat us 5-0 last time). We'll see what happens!
I would assume that their are 3 options: #1 Take the aborted penalty results #2 Flip a coin (which was the previous tiebreaker before penalties). #3 A complete replay of the match (not just the penalties).
The league ultimately decided to resume the penalty shots where we left off. Rescheduled for tonight. So now 20 or so guys have to drive (many of them from over 1/2 hour away) to a field for what could be about 10 minutes of taking PKs. Somewhere, Al Gore just shed a tear.
again, this isn't a laws of the game question. for what it's worth, i've got to say i would have made the same ruling if i was the league commissioner with absolute discretion because the issue wasn't addressed anywhere. unfortunate that it is so inconvenient for everyone, but it sure seems to me like it is the right thing to do to resume where you were and complete them. my second option would be a complete replay (on the theory that the whole point of the pks is to avoid a replay, but since we have to come back out for a second day, let's resolve it on the field rather than by pks - of course, given the circumstances of the commissioner here, that might actually appear to be showing favoritism for his team as it would be taking away the lead your team had in the pks) my last option would simply be to award the game to the team in the lead. pks are supposed to be out of 5, so that just doesn't seem right to me. i certainly don't think there's any reason to the accuse the commissioner of bias. you've still got your lead in the pks, and now just need to close things out tonight. good luck.
I referee in this league and know the commissioner...just spoke with him today about it when I ran into him at Eurosport's blowout "garage" sale. He said he did not participate in the board's vote on the issue specifically because he plays on one of the teams involved. He said his preference would have been to replay the entire match. The commissioner's interest...even though his team was involved...is greater than a single match or even a single season...the integrity of the league is his highest priority, in my opinion.
Took me a while to get the joke... I'm sure his private plane has plenty of TP or Kleenex...double-ply, no doubt!