O/T:- Added on time

[51Magpie]

It is a case of needing stronger officials, there's lots of things allowed to go these days that weren't in the past.

I'm slightly O/T here but I honestly don't know the answer. I'm sure that there was a time when the award of a penalty was the only thing that would put off the final whistle when time was up. Nowadays, if a corner (or a free-kick in a promising position) is awarded, the attacking team seem always to be allowed to take all the time in the world with their prep, and after the kick is eventually taken, the ref still won't blow until either a goal is scored or the ensuing pinball session has finished. Have the laws/rules changed?

[LaxtonLad]

I'm slightly O/T here but I honestly don't know the answer. I'm sure that there was a time when the award of a penalty was the only thing that would put off the final whistle when time was up. Nowadays, if a corner (or a free-kick in a promising position) is awarded, the attacking team seem always to be allowed to take all the time in the world with their prep, and after the kick is eventually taken, the ref still won't blow until either a goal is scored or the ensuing pinball session has finished. Have the laws/rules changed?

My memory might be at fault here but not so long ago wasn't a law introduced where an opposing player must immediately retreat ten(?) yards from where a free-kick is being taken? If I am right can anybody tell me the last time they saw this rule enforced? Referees seem to be either unaware of it or ignore it so what would happen if the player taking the kick quickly booted it into an enemy player who hadn't retreated? My bet is that in a lower league game the ignorant lower league ref would say the kicker should have politely waited.

[51Magpie]

I'm slightly O/T here but I honestly don't know the answer. I'm sure that there was a time when the award of a penalty was the only thing that would put off the final whistle when time was up. Nowadays, if a corner (or a free-kick in a promising position) is awarded, the attacking team seem always to be allowed to take all the time in the world with their prep, and after the kick is eventually taken, the ref still won't blow until either a goal is scored or the ensuing pinball session has finished. Have the laws/rules changed?

In the end I found this was an easy one to check and, AAMOI, it seems that the rules haven't changed. Law 7, Rule 4 is just as it was, and a penalty is the only exception that may cause the match to be extended. [4. Penalty kick. If a penalty kick has to be taken or retaken, the half is extended until the penalty kick is completed.]

Also, I vaguely recall an unusual case of a ref's reaction to a time-wasting substition. We made a substitution in injury time and the player going off was so slow the ref showed him a second yellow and a red. So he still went off but the sub couldn't come on. I never saw that happen before or since. Anyone remember what match it was?

[upthemaggies]

Also, I vaguely recall an unusual case of a ref's reaction to a time-wasting substition. We made a substitution in injury time and the player going off was so slow the ref showed him a second yellow and a red. So he still went off but the sub couldn't come on. I never saw that happen before or since. Anyone remember what match it was?

What era/decade are we talking?

Back in the day, there was only one match ball and the crowd wouldn't always give it back until it had been passed around for a bit. Players would kick the ball away at free kicks, strikers would carry on after a whistle for offside and put the ball into the net, defenders would pass back to the keeper over and over and yet games very rarely went on for more than a minute over the 90. We also had half-time breaks less than 15 minutes, sometimes 10 with the 2nd half kicking off at 3:55 and you'd be out of the ground before 4:45.