Question Number: 14409

Character, Attitude and Control 11/10/2006

RE: Select Under 14

Franco of Bloomington, IN USA asks...

What should be done or what have you seen happen when a referee makes a crucial error that decides the outcome of the game? It is a bad decison by the referee and not one that is a judgement call, such as:

1. A referee does not know the Laws of the game and does not allow a goal scored directly from a corner kick becuase he or she thinks corners are indirect?
2. A referee signals IDFK with arm in the air, but allows a goal to be scored directly from the kick
3. A red carded player is allowed back into the game and scores a goal

Have you ever seen the goal count changed or a game replayed do to an obvious bad call and a call that the referee admits AFTER the game he blew it. What should be done?

Franco

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

File a protest stating the referees breakage of the Laws to the league. Then the decision rests in the hand of the league. Most leagues will back referee as much as possible.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Hi Franco. Each thing you mention is indeed a misapplication of the Laws which makes each game protestable. That's what you do, you protest the game officially through Indiana's youth soccer association which would be your ruling body. After that, it's up to them. My guess would be all these games would be replayed, hopefully with a referee that knew you could score directly from a corner!! Thanks for question

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

AS I have stated again and again fix problems avoid pointing the finger of blame. While a referee error can affect a match the deciding factor is often the fifteen attempts wide of the goal or the three crossbars hit.

A referee's decision as to what occurs is not easily challenged even if it is incorrect the restart for WHY is! If that restart is wrong it is protestable. Still only the league or association will decide the two teams fate once a protest is lodged

For example a referee calls deliberate handling on a defender inside the penalty area but the referee claimed the incident was outside and restarts with a dfk outside the PA, nothing, not even video evidence clearly showing the foul inside will change that decision.

Now if the referee called deliberate handling on a defender inside the penalty area but restarted with a dfk from that point inside the area instead of moving it to the PK spot that is a misapplication of the law. LAW 12 states a penalty kick is awarded if any of the ten penal offences is committed by a player inside his own penalty area, irrespective of the position of the ball, provided it is in play

Now if the restart was an indfk, as deliberate handling is a DFK offence again it is a misapplication of the laws and protestable .

If the deliberate handling inside the penalty area was correctly restarted with a pk and a score resulted that team wins 1 to nothing
Even if video evidence clearly with out doubt showed the deliberate handling was in fact completely accidental that score is not protestable. The referee was incorrect in his foul recognition but his decision to restart was correct for why he stopped play!

I suffered as a coach from misapplication of the laws by well meaning referees who were clueless their actions created controversy and injury to my players. We replayed a provincial scheduled match where the 1st referee conducted a shootout improperly. Tied after the first 5 shots we scored on the 7th shot of sudden death they missed but the referee had said we must each shoot till 10. Well we remained ahead in the count so I figured no big deal the opposing team claimed they altered their shooters based on 10 shots not 5 and sudden death.

That match was ordered replayed! In that match my #1 midfielder was cleated back ankle and sidelined for the match. No card shown!
The opposing keeper deliberately handled the ball on a through ball within the penalty arc. Our striker was in pursuit and the act was clearly DOGSO or the very least a caution for the USB of breaking up attacking play. No card shown but we were awarded a PENALTY KICK!! I nearly got tossed from the match because I tried to convince the AR to correct this seriously wrong decision to please talk to the referee. The referee correctly told me to leave his AR alone and said he would dismiss me from the grounds if I caused any more trouble! I bit a hole in my lip called my captain over to instruct our pk taker to deliberately miss the penalty shot as I saw this as a replay for misapplication of the laws.. We won 2 to 1 the opposing team felt because we missed the pk there was no need to protest a second time. I briefly wondered if we had lost by a goal would I have used this excuse to protest? That said I wrote a report and sent it to the league hopefully to educate and correct further issues. I received a thank you and corrective measures were taken to inform the referees .
Cheers