Quick quiz question

[Gordy Boy]

I have absolutely no idea what the answer is, it's been winding me up since I was asked last night. Hopefully you more intelligent types will know.

What enters the field of play in a football match at half-time, but doesn't leave until the match is over? If it's a Saturday match it leaves after the game, but if it's a mid-week game it remains until the next day... and it
only happens in the English Premiership, not in Scotland or the lower divisions..."

[Reece]

Reply from a collgeague at work:

"seen before, apparently no answer, kinda hoax question made up by football hating person who disliked not being able to get involved in footy triv down the pub, tw@t!"

[PTP]

google search -

This riddle seems to have some popularity on the web; it also has a couple debatable answers. I've left the question as is in case the wording affects the answer.
There are some rumors around the web claiming this riddle is a hoax, that there is no answer. There are answers but of course the argument would be that these answers are not correct and that there is no correct answer.


There are two potential answers right now 1) the referees, 2) urine samples. I'll go over each one separately.


The referees enter the field of play at half time, that's not to say they don't enter the field of play at other points as well, they just also do it at half time. The referee will also stay till the end of the match; his job would depend on that. The tricky part is the Saturday vs. midweek matches. Why would the referee leave after the game on Saturday but not midweek? Since referees come from all over, often quite far, they will stay overnight in the city if they referee a mid week game. If the game is on Saturday afternoon there is plenty of the time for the referee to get home, of course some referees are going to be local and some will stay over even on Saturday nights for a couple beers, but in general the answer of a referee does work. This only happens in English Premier because that's the only league that puts the referees up in a hotel for the night.


The second answer of a urine sample is a little cloudier and my opinion is that the referee answer is the correct answer, but I'll add this one anyway. A urine test would be done after the game. If the player is carrying around his urine (gross I know) then when he enters the match at half time so would his urine. Again this is not to say that the urine wasn't in the field of play at other points but the question doesn't stipulate that the answer only come into the field of play at half time. The urine sample will leave the stadium after the game on Saturdays but they wait until the next day mid week. This only happens in the English Primer league because they are the only ones that take urine samples.

[Gordy Boy]

Cheers gents,

I'll not lose any more sleep over it in that case.

[Warren]

I'm sure it was on Soccer AM a few years ago and they said it was just made up ****e with no real answer

[wavydavy]

I have absolutely no idea what the answer is, it's been winding me up since I was asked last night. Hopefully you more intelligent types will know.

What enters the field of play in a football match at half-time, but doesn't leave until the match is over? If it's a Saturday match it leaves after the game, but if it's a mid-week game it remains until the next day... and it
only happens in the English Premiership, not in Scotland or the lower divisions..."

One of my mates caused ****ing murder with this about 15 years ago in the Flatty. He tried to come clean in the end but some fella's wouldn't accept there was no answer. There was uproar. Some of the suggestions for the answer were unbelievable.