Question Number: 12755

Kicks From The Penalty mark 5/8/2006

RE: u-16 state championship Adult

lil bennett of west monroe, louisiana united states asks...

regulation ends tied zero to zero. They play two 10 min. over time, and it's still zero to zero. The center referee explains the sudden death rules, but he does not explain them correctly.After 5 for each team shoot, one team is ahead, but he lets the 6th girl shoot for the losing team and she makes it tying the temas again. At this point, the Tournament Director comes to the field and tells the center referee that he was wrong in letting the 6th girls shoot and the team that finished ahead after 5 was the winner. They left the field and then the losing team protested and claimed that the center referee had told them that 10 girls would shoot before the outcome would be determined. The losing coach knew the rules, but he said he should be allowed to play by the rules that the center referee gave them, and not by the written and correct rules. He filed a protest and won. After 1 hr. and 1/2 of griping, they got bakc on the field, started over and the team that won fair the 1st time lost. My question is: Do you go by the correct rules or do you go by the rules as explained by the Center Referee?

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

This was handled by the tournament director, their decision considered all information at hand. Then there were arguments and the decision was given.

The Laws of the Game are clear in this, Kicks from the Penalty Mark Procedure is laid out on page 36 of the Laws of the Game. If the referee did not apply the laws correctly and a protest was filed we must yield to the outcome of the protest and the result of anything that happened subsequent to that decision.

I believe the tournament director's decision to accept the protest was in error. He corrected the match referee's incorrect decision and that ended the Procedures To Determine The Winner Of A Match as laid out in the Laws of the Game. It is unfortunate the referee was ignorant of the Law. It is unfortunate one who, supposedly, knew the Law allowed it's incorrect application. It is unfortunate there was a protest filed and accepted and acted upon.

You may wish to relate this situation to the State Youth Administration so they know the level of training of the referees in the tournament. Perhaps, once they are aware of this, they can order corrective action be taken.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Lil,
shades of deja vu!!
Although a referee can bend the laws, he can not set them aside or make up new ones . In cases where a referee mangles the law sometimes there are consequences for the teams playing in that a protest filed is upheld. A replay of the match or a continuation of the PK or a declaration of a winner or non result whatever the league officials decide is what occurs.

They must of transported out the referee from a few years ago down your way because that is the exact thing that occurred during a run into the Commonwealth Cup back in 1998 we had a single knockout tournament that started with 2048 teams progression of 1024 games 512, 256, 128, 64,32,16,8,4, 2 ,1

We had to pay money to counter protest the protest. The reason REFEREE MISAPPLICATION OF THE LAWS!!!! due to improper instructions given during the shootout to determine the outcome.

An improper coin flip to determine the shooting order and the fact two groups of 5 for 10 shooters were forced to continue even after the 7 th shot in sudden death or so we thought had won it for us.

During the replay our speedy striker was studded from behind and gashed in the ankle that tore his sock open and drew bloody streaks on the back of the leg and ankle. While a free kick was awarded NO CARD!!! We are down a very good player injured in a match that SHOULD not have been replayed!

During the replay the opposing keeper deliberately handled the ball outside his PA near the top of the penalty ARC four yards OUTSIDE the PA. The referee in his infinite wisdom awarded us with a PK INSIDE the area, rather than red card for DOGSO and the DFK at the top of the ARC as prescribed in law ! We had our PK kicker DELIBERATELY shoot wide in the hopes we would not be replaying once again. We won that replay 2 to 1. THIS flagrant misapplication of the law should have forced another replay thankfully the league decided that our team had suffered enough and no third replay was demanded.

The neutral referee one can hope is fit, experienced, well versed in law and application, good foul recognition, a ready smile and concern for the welfare of all participants and their safety. No one can doubt the conviction and integrity of a good referee trying to do the best job possible. Much in a match is not of his doing but of the choices others make.

Each referee while a mixture of experience and understanding of the game is a MATCH condition just like the weather or pitch surface, rain or sun, hard or muddy! A player adapts to the over techy guy, the out of position guy, the new guy, the set in his way old school guy, because for THAT game the referee is a fixture just like the corner flag, post or crossbar, he is part of the field of play. This referee may indeed call things loose, tight or somewhere in between. It is a fact that the consistency of refereeing is not upheld game to game simply because various stages of development are at work. It is only possible for a referee to show consistency in the MATCH he presides over for that 1 & 1/2 hr. As referees complete training and move on up they GENERALLY arrive at greater consensus but man management is a skill that what works for one not always for another and occasionally not even for the one. Cheers