Question Number: 12286

Mechanics 3/3/2006

RE: High School High School

Mark of Orangevale, CA USA asks...

A high school match the other day we scored a goal in the last seconds of the game. Problem is that our girl was obviously offside. However, the assistant referee did not raise his flag (he actually made no signal at all - I assumed he may have wanted to talk that one over with the center referee) the center referee looked over at the motionless assistant ref and pointed at the center mark blew his whistle and then immediatly blew the whistle to end the game. As you can imagine there was some discussion at that point between the assistant referee, the center referee, and the coaches. My question is can the referee change his descision an dissallow the goal under the LOTG after he has signalled the end of the match? Ultimately there was no change in the descision and our team got away with the offside.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Well Mark there is a couple things that happened here that allow discussion. The referee has made a mistake or more in his application of the rules. His first mistake was to end the match before the restart of play after the kick off.

The reason for a kick off is, in American high school anyway, the referee MUST stop the clock when a goal is scored. It is, therefore, impossible for time to expire and the match cannot end.

The second mistake is not ensuring his assistant referees know the correct procedure for denying a goal. The high school rules do not address this but referees have the power to make decisions on any point not specifically covered in the rules. All the referees assigned to matches in your area MUST be USSF certified and the USSF procedure, in this case, is to raise the flag to call attention to the offside player scoring a goal. This procedure was not followed and it is the referee's mistake.

The match was ended and, again an item not specifically addressed, cannot alter any decision made during the completed match.

The last mistake was entertaining a discussion with the coaches. The decision of the referee is final, the coaches have no input at that time. The Coach loosing the goal may file a protest and, because the referee misapplied the Rule, it will be upheld. I do not know if the goal will be disallowed or the match replayed, that is up to the league concerned.

Your question was forwarded to the president, assignor and lead assessor of the local high school referee association for action. Rest assured the referee, if identified, will be counseled. This should be a matter of discussion at the next referee's meeting, but it will not make any difference -- mistakes of this nature will continue to be made because high school rules differ significantly for the Laws of the Game and most referees are not that familiar with them when fatigued. They are tested at the beginning of the season but the test is open book so they can pass, even though they usually do not understand the rules. I am a member of that association but I do not attend meetings or referee games, I just don't like working with those who demand mediocrity as a level of excellence to maintain...

Regards,