The Laws of the Game are of limited help for a referee when trying to work out how long advantage can be played before it is deemed to be over and three events this weekend served to illustrate the different interpretations. A player asked me after my game on Saturday why I penalised the original offence on a player after he had managed to get a shot away that went wide. Perhaps he was right. There was a gap of 3-5 seconds between the offence and me blowing for the foul, longer than I would normally leave.
I forget the FA Cup 5th round match, but a similar delay happened in one of the matches on Saturday. But then today, watching my refereeing colleague David Boughton on the rec outside my house, he played an advantage after a foul and then blew for an offside within a second or 2. That was a tricky one, but he had ruled that the advantage had accrued and that play had entered a new phase with the offside decision.
The law states: "the decision to penalise the original offence must be taken within the next few seconds." Referees have been encouraged, however, to interpret the law liberally and to wait several seconds before ending the advantage.
It's a tricky area and one where the referee has to use his common sense as much as possible.
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