My team was leading by a goal late in the game when one of my teammates had the ball under pressure in our own end. He was on the sidline so he decided to kick the ball as far as he could out of bounds. Obviously this wouldn't be a problem except that that was the only ball. It took a minute or two for someone to run and get the ball. The ref than warned the player not to do it again. Was he right to do that? Is this timewasting?
Yes This is a classic case of time wasting. Don't do it or be prepared to suffer the consequences. Besides, it does no good. The referee will simply add the wasted time and you will gain nothing.
Well it's border line time wasting. IMHO it could also be considered just plain old Unsporting Behavior. Afterall, the referee can always just add more stoppage time, but it is unsporting to kick the ball as far as possible for no reason.
i've been in leagues where the ref couldn't add time because the next game has to start by a specific time so that they could get all the games in on a given day. in such cases, i definitely could see coming down hard on a team/player under such circumstances, and resolving any doubt against the defense/team in the lead. that said, i can think of plausible explanations, so it really would depend on what i saw. for example, you state that your teammate was under pressure. what is so wrong about clearing the ball to give your other teammates time to get back on defense? or to give them time to figure out who they are marking? if the other team was on a break and you were down numbers, this seems like smart defense as opposed to unsportsmanlike conduct. if, on the other hand, your teammate was really just trying to waste time, it's hard to justify it.
I'd have a hard time trying to sell the fact that a player was kicking a ball too far out of play. Just let them know that your adding as much time as necessary to make up for it. Similar circumstance happened in a tournament game I centered two weekends ago. A coach whose team was up a goal in the final 5 minutes of play started subbing in his far side midfielder on every substitution opportunity. When I got a chance to get near him, I told him that I'd allow all the subs he wanted but I'd be adding all the playing time lost due to substitutions. He said "that's all I needed to hear...no more subs"...smart coach! He knew that most of us don't add time or add considerably less time than what is lost. I'm glad he stopped the subbing...it was unbearably cold that Sunday!!! Scott
Port Qaz, It is time wasting, but LEGAL time wasting. The following is an excerpt from Jin Allen's Ask-A-Ref dated December 22, 1999. It was also a USSF article authored by Jim Allen with a title something like "Affecting Play" in that time frame. <snip> Gamesmanship or misconduct: Gamesmanship in soccer ranges from entirely within the Law to being quite illegal. Examples of legal gamesmanship are a team constantly kicking the ball out of play or a player constantly placing himself in an offside position so that the referee must stop and restart the game. Players who commit these legal acts cannot be cautioned for unsporting behavior and shown the yellow card. Referees' only response to this legal time wasting is the power under Law 7 to add as much time as necessary to ensure equality. <snip> And Blech is right when the matches have to go off like clockwork. I consider this a defect on the part of the organizers of the competition. There ought to be adequate time between matches so that the referee can deal with time wasting.
I dont think EITHER of these subjects are as black and white as your little snippet of quote would like them to appear. there is a fine line between gamesmanship and cheating and the referee must decide where to draw that line. As referees we are not here to ensure a fair result but we MUST do our best to ensure that the result is obtained fairly.
Easy answer: No. You can kick the ball as far as you like. I'm assuming the referee had the sense to add time on for it though