Question Number: 12123

Law 18 - Common Sense 1/30/2006

RE: 3 div Adult

Jorge of Leiria, Portugal asks...

A player, who has already been cautioned, deliberatly abandons the field of play.
He doesn't inform the referee he is leaving and he is not injured.
Some minutes later, his team asks for a substitution, being that player the one to be substituted.
Should the referee allow this substitution? or how should he proceed?

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

This is up to the individual referee. The player has left the field without permission. This is a cautionable offense so the referee would be well grounded in Law to caution him, show the yellow card and then send him off and show the red card. Personally, unless there was some problem you don't specify, I would just let him leave and allow the substitution to preceed.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Jorge
great question, this has occurred more often than you might think

WE COULD in law explain our DESIRE to do this by absolute to letter of the law but unless there are some serious pressing match control issues and to be truthful I can not see what they might be honestly it just does not NEED to be done.

It appears in your senario you stopped play for another reason and before you restarted this situation came to light? Or did you stop play BECAUSE this player was missing? You could de facto give permission that to leave was ok. One thing that a referee could draw upon is the fact the team WAS playing a man down inadvertantly and allow the sub to enter.

If the walkabout player was to return and you had cut the team some slack initially when he disappeared. There are ways of ensuring his return does not adversly affect the match. Unless there are severe mitigating circumstances to explain his absence you do not have to grant him admission back onto the field.

There is little benifit in these circumstances to discipline with a second yellow forcing the team into a 10 man situtation. His own team will likely bring him to task at some point, why give yourself the headache?

In your description of events if you adhere to the absolutes in law you could be correct in law to caution and show the yellow card? to the player for leaving without permission and as a second yellow show a red card to the player reducing the team to 10! Except there is no player to show anything too! The substitution for THAT player can not take place as they are reduced to 10. An INDFK from where the ball was when you stopped play. If play was stopped continue with the restart. But I must digress! While a red card could be justified within the letter of the law in MY opinion it rips the spirit of the law to shreads.

A cautioned player upset at his coach and basically mad at the players on his team decided he did not want to be part of the team and quit, just walked off got into the car and left without anyone picking up on what happened for a few moments. While the timeline was not as great as yours the concept remains. The referee chose to stop play and find out if there was something seriously wrong. No, he just was fed up playing and did not enjoy the game anymore. The referee restarted with a dropball and allowed a substitution

I have seen players run off the FOP to be sick or head to a washroom at a few weekend tournaments. While the player was doing his thing the coached asked if he could substitute another player as the match was ongoing? The referee considered waiting till the next stoppage but could see the focus of the game was on this poor bastard so he stopped play as the team with the sick player had posession. Restarted with a dropball and subbed in a replacement.
Not strictly text book in either case but the match remained intact and no complaints were heard.

Cheers