Question Number: 14900

Mechanics 2/26/2007

RE: College

john of central coast, ca us asks...

A ball is being played near the touchline with one player in complete control of the ball and a defensive player near by. The center referee blows his whistle and signals throw in. The linesman who had a clear view of the ball and the play never raised his flag to say the ball had fully crossed over the line. He signals that to the referee and the referee then gives a drop ball instructing the player who had control of the ball to play it to the other team.

Question 1: Should that have been an indirect kick for the team in possession or a drop ball?

Question 2: If it indeed should have been a drop ball, shouldn't the referee have not instructed the player at all? Or at least instructed the defensive player to play it back to the other team because they did have possession before the wrong call was made?

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

1. No. The referee mistakenly stopped play. The correct restart is a dropped ball. 2. You are correct. The referee cannot insist that a team do the sporting thing. Rather than instructing anyone the referee should have quickly dropped the ball to the team that had possession when he mistakenly blew his whistle. There is no requirement that any player much less 2 players take part in a dropped ball

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

1. Referee messed up. Always uses ARs here. The drop ball is actually the correct restart. 2. That is all up the how the players feel. The referee can indeed talk to the players about this, but that decision must come from the heart of the players.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

There is another way to look at this; yeah, the referee stopped play when he shouldn't have. BUT, once the linesman sees the referee signal for throw-in he should support the referee's decision and signal as well; NOT say he screwed up. This out-votes the players who "mistakenly" think the ball didn't leave the field of play.

Bang, the whistle and signal; bang, the flag; presto, case closed -- we throw the ball in to restart play -- nuff said. When the players question the decision all that needs to be said is "Whoops, did I blow that one? Sorry guys". Case remains closed.

Dropped ball is correct, telling them what to do ain't, suggesting they do something is fine if they buy into it... Just don't force the issue.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi John,
The AR is responsible for informing the referee of things he did not see. If the AR knows that the referee is wrong he could try to save the referee from himself if it is crucial to step in and do so. Wrong player sent off, second yellow and no red shown, pk awarded for a foul outside the PA these things are protestable and career ending defining moments.

Here we have a simple display of bad mechanics, first off a referee should not be blowing his whistle to stop play unless play is required to be stopped. The ARs duty to signal ball in and out is only secondary to offside duties but generally a referee waits for the raised flag on balls that are being looked at from a down the line perspective as it is generally a better view. Now players can block that view and if a referee sees the ball out it is fine to call it but to reverse it on the AR say so is not the best mechanic to display even if it that ball was in fact marginally into or out of touch.
For an AR to push this and let everyone know the referee is in error and force a drop ball restart it looks bad rather than a correction that was needed as in the game changing ones I listed earlier.
Here a soft word at the half why are you so quick on the whistle that ball was not fully into touch? If acting as an AR the referee was constantly blowing before you see the ball out or overruling you all the time then you have issues that require further training then we can solve here!

A dropball restart has very few conditions and returning it to the opposition is not one of them nor is a referee after making a hash of a simple throw in now compounding his error by trying to get the players to make it better! The team that thought they were going to get the throw are peeved that it is a drop and not as likely to back off thinking it unfair for the referee to have reversed his call in the first place.

Cheers