Question:
My question is regarding a technical error made by the referee and the consequences from it. The referee in error ended a game 3-5 minutes early; this is a fact. The losing team protested the score.
What is the correct ruling?
The game has to be replayed in its entirety or the last (non played) minutes have to be played out to be considered a full game. Or are there any other options.
USSF answer (November 26, 2007):
There is no fixed formula for this situation and it is not covered in the Laws of the Game. Unless there is some other provision for this in the rules of the competition, tradition says that the game must be replayed in its entirety.
It would have been nice if the error had been caught immediately, in which case the game could have been completed on the spot, restarting with a dropped ball from the place where the ball was when the referee stopped play or, if the ball had already passed out of play, with the correct restart for the reason the ball was out of play.
