Question Number: 23433

Law 4 - Players Equipment 6/8/2010

RE: Under 17

Dave of Des Moines, IA US asks...

This question is a follow up to question 23352

On a related question,
What do you do with untied shoe laces that take too long to tie?
Especially with goalies with their gloves.
This happened when the goalies shoes were untied and her team was ahead by one near the end of a tournament match and time could not be added.
There was much, shall we say, 'urging' to get the game started again.
I asked a team mate to quickly tie her shoes but felt off guard as far as what to do.
If a players laces are knotted should she be sent off to correct it and play short?
Should you ask the coach to sub her out at a stoppage?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Law 4 gives the procedure:
- play need not be stopped
- the player at fault is instructed by the referee to leave the field of play to correct his equipment
- the player leaves the field of play when the ball next ceases to be in play, unless he has already corrected his equipment

If the rules of the competition do not allow adding time to compensate for wastage, you cannot delay to allow players to correct equipment. Since it is the goalkeeper, someone will have to replace her if she needs to leave the field. If it is not a valid substitution opportunity, then the replacement will have to come from one of the field players.

Of course, all this will delay the game just as much, if not more, than simply having someone tie her shoe and getting on with it.

Perhaps you should bring this incident to the attention of the tournament referee coordinator, and ask what should be done about the lost time. But in my experience with tournaments, keeping to the schedule is of more importance than ensuring the teams get the fair amount of play time. After all, if they didn't cram games in so tightly, they might have to register one or two less teams. And that would lead to a decline in revenue.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
If it is an outfield player then play need not be stopped to tie laces particularly when time cannot be added on. If time can be added on then I see no difficulty in allowing play to be stopped, the laces tied and the game restarted with the time added on.
In the case of the GK the player cannot leave the FOP without being replaced which will take a lot longer to complete with a change of jersey, gloves etc. My solution is to get the GK' s laces tied and simply do one's best to ensure that it is done quickly and without delay. In the scheme of things it should take longer than say 15/20 seconds to sort this. Also in the case of correction of equipment the referee cannot request a substitution but can simply ask the player to leave the FOP and allow play to continue. Tying laces would not be a reason to request the player to leave IMO as it can be done on the FOP.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

At U17, if their laces are untied, that's their problem, especially if fixing it requires disadvantaging the other team because of time issues.

At younger ages, I might suggest the coach sub them and correct the problem, but the coach isn't required to do so. If a teammate can't take care of it in less than 30 seconds, we'll start play again and hopefully the keeper will do a better job on her laces next time.

The referee would need to be aware that this might be a delaying tactic for a team and act accordingly.