Malawi Soccer and FIFA Law # 7: THE DURATION OF THE MATCH

The match lasts two equal periods of 45 minutes, unless otherwise
mutually agreed between the referee and the two participating teams.
Any agreement to alter the periods of play (for example to reduce
each half to 40 minutes because of insufficient light) must be made
before the start of play and must comply with competition rules.

A game which is terminated prematurely by the referee for any reason, such as a persistent thunderstorm, the field becoming waterlogged by rain, or excessive spectator interference, is considered abandoned and is a nullity unless the preset rules for that particular competition provide that the score at the time of stoppage stands. Otherwise, a game ended prematurely must be replayed in its entirety, regardless of what was the score or the cause for its premature end.

Last Week, MTL Wanderers “beat” Escom United 4-2 (after 80 minutes of regulation time and penalty shoot-outs that ended prematurely) at the Giant Kamuzu Stadium to win the MK60,000,000 Bingu Wa Mutharika Cup. At the end of regular time (80 minutes) the teams were tied at 1-1. During penalty shoot-out, ESCOM United scored one penalty but had three of their four spot kicks saved by MTL Wanderers’ goalkeeper, leaving them with one more penalty to take. MTL Wanderers scored two and missed one, leaving them with two more penalties to take.

Before MTL Wanderers had taken their 4th penalty (decider), the ref blew the final whistle (prematurely) indicating that Wanderers were the winners. I pity the ref. MTL Wanderers pocketed MK10,000,000. ESCOM United didn’t protest there and then possibly because the President of the Republic of Malawi was in attendance.

Had the ref not erroneously stopped the penalty shoot-out, assuming MTL Wanderers missed their 4th untaken penalty, ESCOM United scored their remaining untaken penalty (5th penalty) and MTL Wanderers also missed their 5th untaken penalty, the two teams would have scored 3 out of 5 penalties each and the total score would have been 4-4 (including 1-1 regular time scores) which would have resulted into sudden death penalty shoot-out. Broad-day light robbery?

Allegedly and reportedly, the ref claims that declaring MTL Wanderers winners was neither arbitrary nor capricious. The ref told the media that he stopped the penalty shoot-out because of impending darkness. The same ref told the media that after ESCOM United had missed three of their four taken penalties he assumed (yes assumed) that they would not score the fifth one and therefore had no choice but to blow the final whistle. Ref’s decision final or game abandoned?

Although the default rule is that any game prematurely terminated is an abandoned nullity (you don’t get the official win), you should check your league’s or tournament’s pre-existing rules for when the results of a partial game officially stand, since these can modify the default rule on the consequences of abandoned games.

On October 29, 1996, two Alsatian teams, Obernai (PH, sixth level) and ASCA Wittelsheim (N3, fifth level) played each other to a 2-2 draw after extra time, and then started an interminable shoot-out. Literally: after both teams had taken 20 penalties (so 40 in all), the score was 15-15, both having missed 5. At that stage the referee had to suspend the shoot-out due to darkness. As the fixture list was congested, the League of Alsatia (Ligue d’Alsace) decided to qualify Obernai to the 6th round of the cup, as the lower level team in the league pyramid.

Should the game between MTL Wanderers and ESCOM United be replayed? Should the results stand because ref’s decision is final? Should they just take the remaining penalties? Should they just toss a coin or draw lots?