These are the final seconds of the NBA Finals. In a one-point game, the clock hits 0.0, but the game continues for a few seconds as the Golden State Warriors drive to the rim.
The battle continues at Madison Square Garden. The final bell rang in the 12th round, but the referee did little to stop Oleksandr Usyk’s progress as the Ukrainian boxer came close to a knockout.
With one lap left in the Formula 1 World Championship and in a winner-take-all situation, the race director refused to take down the checkered flag as second place was chasing the leader. In fact, after the controversial end of the 2021 season, maybe this is not the best example.
Still, the point holds true. The above situation is ridiculous – every major sport has a definite ending, whether it’s the expiration of the game clock, the final pitch, match point. They are objective, not subjective.
Football is the exception, and its limitations were exposed in the final moments of Real Madrid’s 2-2 draw with Valencia on Saturday night.
This is what happened.
Bellingham and other players surrounded the referee after the referee made his decision (Jose Hernandez/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Seven minutes of added time appeared on the fourth official’s board. Afterwards, the initial penalty awarded against Real Madrid was overturned by VAR and the game was delayed for two minutes. Anger ran high for the visitors on an emotional night – with winger Vinicius Junior scoring two goals at a pitch that suffered racial abuse last season.
The delay meant play continued into the 99th minute, and as Luka Modric approached to take a Madrid corner, referee Jesus Gil Manzano signaled it would be the last of the match.
Valencia made a clearance – but only on the edge of the box. As Madrid winger Brahim Diaz prepared to pass the ball back, Gil Manzano blew the whistle. game over.
Less than a second later, Diaz made a cross. The referee’s whistle has not yet attracted the attention of the waiting players. Jude Bellingham, who has scored 16 La Liga goals this season, scored with a header. He turned around to celebrate, and both he and Real Madrid deemed it a winner, another special moment in his brilliant debut season.
Gil Manzano was adamant. no target. Bellingham was joined by captain Dani Carvajal, Vinicius Junior, Joselu, Andre Lunin and Antonio Rudiger in rushing towards the referee.
“That’s a damn goal,” Bellingham yelled at Gil Manzano – before being sent off. Speaking after the game, Carlo Ancelotti backed his players.
“Bellingham didn’t insult the referee, he said in English, ‘It’s a goal’ and that’s what we all thought,” the Madrid boss said. “He was very close to the referee but that’s normal considering what happened.”
Madrid’s official website called this an “unprecedented referee decision” – but from a legal perspective, they did not file a case. Gil Manzano played enough time in stoppage time to signal the end of the game and the final whistle signaled the end of the game. No ifs, buts or maybes.
The anger stems from an unwritten rule in football that the final whistle should not be blown when a team is attacking.
“The ball is in the air – what the hell is that?” Bellingham appeared to say during the protest. From a rewatch, Gil Manzano’s first whistle occurred before the ball was passed – the second and third whistles occurred while the ball was in the air, but before Bellingham headed the ball . All it takes is the first whistle to stop play.
The football rulebook is vague about when a referee should blow his whistle. According to the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the sport’s legislators, the referee “acts as a timekeeper” and “referees can add but not reduce stoppage time” and “allowances for lost time are at the referee’s discretion”.
IFAB Law 5.2 adds: “If the referee has signaled the end of the first half or second half, the referee shall not change the decision to restart after realizing that the decision to restart was incorrect.”
This furry feeling leads to the creation of subjective systems. The way the game works is this: if one team is on offense, the half shouldn’t end, but if this isn’t coded, referees can interpret this in different ways – if they recognize it.
What constitutes an attack? Is it going to be a shot or a cross? What if there is an opportunity for transformation? What if a player obviously runs towards the goal from behind from halfway? Guardiola’s City had a patient build-up on the edge of the penalty area for 60 seconds. Was it a sustained attack?
All other elements of football are strictly regulated. IFAB’s rules of the game are a 230-page document. Six of the pages (including diagrams) are devoted to the composition of handball. Why is one of its most important elements – when the game is over – barely worth mentioning?
After posting this on X (formerly Twitter), some people responded saying the law was clear – once the whistle blows, the game is over. So why the widespread outrage? Others responded that it was just a problem because it had happened to Bellingham and Real Madrid, but it wasn’t the first time. In a high-stakes, high-profile game, it’s only a matter of time before it happens again.
Back in the 1978 World Cup, during the group stage match against Sweden, Wales referee Clive Thomas whistled a Brazilian corner kick in the air and disallowed Zico’s header when Brazil could have made it 2-1. win. The decision meant they finished second in their group, putting them in a tougher spot in the second round and ultimately failing to advance to the final.
In January 2021, Paul Tierney blew the half-time horn just seconds before the end of one minute of stoppage time. Liverpool fell behind in midfield against Manchester United in a crucial Premier League match, but Sadio Mane appeared to score from goal. He couldn’t get the ball into the net before the 46th-minute bell sounded.
A month later, Craig Pawson officiated Manchester United’s match against West Bromwich Albion. After two minutes of stoppage time, the score was 1-1 on 47.07 and United scored from their own half – four attackers against a West Brom defender. Pawson whistled the ball 70 yards from the opponent’s goal and was surrounded by angry United players.
Most shockingly, in November 2017, Spanish second division side Ponferradina thought they had a late winner to lift them out of the relegation zone, but when Andy Rodriguez Referee Alvaro Lopez Parra got angry when Andy Rodriguez kicked the ball past the goalkeeper.
Jim. Segoviana – Ponferradina (0-0): Ponfer had a goal disallowed in the previous game.When the final whistle blew, the ball went in (via @rtvcyl) pic.twitter.com/zgUlU7z9E8
— El Partidazo de COPE (@partidazocope) November 2, 2017
These laws allow for subconscious bias, the possibility of the home or favorites getting more chances, and inconsistencies in referees’ different interpretations of what constitutes an attack.
The same problem arises when accessing the referee forum. Dozens of lower-level officials have stories of being surrounded after boasting about their professional duties. Their decision is final but subjective. People disagree.
“Trust me, attacking in a neutral situation is less infuriating,” one referee wrote, explaining a controversial incident. “But that’s not always the right thing to do.”
It doesn’t need to be this way.
The IFAB annual conference took place in Scotland last week. There, football lawmakers discussed permanent and temporary concussion substitutions, accidental handballs and violations during penalty kicks. If full-time employment was on the agenda, what else might they discuss?
Football has some challenges. Since there will be more stoppages after the 90th minute – injuries, substitutions, celebrations, wasted time – the referee cannot simply blow up the game at the end of allotted stoppage time.
If football had a system that stopped the clock when the ball went out of play, games would stretch to unprecedented lengths – a typical match in the Premier League is around 55 minutes.
However, under the current system, teams will complain if the whistle is blown on offense. In this ambiguity, no one is happy.
A simple adjustment may help. During injury time, the referee can switch to a stopped clock system and blow the whistle on the full minute. For example, if a team scores after the referee signals four minutes of stoppage time, the referee can stop time before restarting while play is underway and blow the whistle on time at 94.00. Professional sports venues have clocks that show the exact time to keep players awake.
It gave legal objectivity, allowing timeouts after the 90th minute and only to be implemented during stoppage time, meaning matches would not take more than two hours to complete. This is nothing new for the sport – futsal already has designated timekeepers and strictly full-time whistles.
Bellingham’s “goal” should not have stood, but the ambiguity and limitations of football law put the referee in a difficult position. The game is already difficult to control. This is not a case of the rules being changed, but rather fundamental clarity being introduced.
(Top: Getty Images; Design: Dan Goldfarb)
