Question Number: 15249

Mechanics 4/23/2007

RE: Select Under 18

Alex of Woodbridge, VA Prince William asks...

During a match, a team was in the attacking 1/3 of the field, whereupon the offensive midfielder played a ball from the middle end of the opposing team's half of the center circle, to a striker on the right hand side of the goal box (18 yrd line), as the striker received the ball (the left back went to ground claiming he was injured...mind you, not from the play), my striker then proceeded to goal, where the goalkeeper, still active, made an attempt to stop him 1v1...my striker scored and celebrated, with the opposing team feeling they had conceded a goal. The linesman on the opposing teams half, near the player that went to ground, had raised his flag and twirlled it about to try and signal the referee, prior to the goal. After he didn't get the refs attention, he put his flag down. The goal was given, but before the opposing team kicked off, the opposing team's coach persuaded the referee to consult the linesman, they spoke, and then informed me that they were disallowing the goal because the player was injured...even though, no infraction had occured...no law (FIFA, or local league) had been broken. The referee was simply callling the ball back for a drop ball citing no rule/law...how can this be? The drop ball also occurred 30 yards from the site of the injured player.

Is this a legitimate opportunity to protest this call? The method of scoring under FIFA Laws of The Game state that "a goal is scored if the ball crosses the whole goal line, provided there is no infringement by the scoring team."

Please help, this is a vital game to a team of boys that worked hard to get this goal.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Some things the referee did, should have done, could do all lay to the opinion of the referee. These are facts connected with play. The referee crew agreed play should stop with the "injured" defender. Play stopped. To restart play the ball is dropped at the point it was when play stopped. Right. Your protest will reveal these facts and then be dismissed.

Now let's evaluate what happened. The defense is beaten, the referee's attention is focused on a 1 v. 1 situation involving your attacker and their goal tender. [as it should be] He does not see/consider/accept a serious injury has happened to anyone. A goal is scored. He does not check with his assistant before signalling and returning to the halfway line. The assistant gives up his signal. The coach intervenes. Here we start making things up and the worst happens.

First and foremost is this, from Law 5, Powers and Duties:

stops the match if, in his opinion, a player is seriously injured and ensures that he is removed from the field of play. An injured player may only return to the field of play after the match has restarted;

allows play to continue until the ball is out of play if a player is, in his opinion, only slightly injured;

The casual reader will understand these are the Referees powers and duties and not the "Assistant" Referees. The assistant took it upon himself to convey his opinion regarding a player on the floor, his job.

Now when he did this bit of helping out the referee didn't see for some reason or another and play stopped when the ball crossed the goal line under the cross bar and between the posts. Law 10 allows the restart from this stoppage is a kick off and further tells us to credit your side with one goal.

At some time after the goal is scored the referee finds out Schmucatella has a BooBoo. What he should do is call the physio onto the field while he is discussing the whys and wherefores and WTF's with the insisting assistant. So far so good. He has the information necessary to make a decision.

Law 7 allows the referee to add time for:

assessment of injured to players; [and]

removal of injured players from the field of play for treatment;

The referee needs to find out if Schmucatella is bent or just searching for a stoppage in play. Note, the referee has already seen to his treatment so Schmucatella is going to leave the field until play restarts or has recovered his faculties. Questions needing answers follow:

If he is bent was it the result of the Law being infringed by the team scoring the goal? True=no goal False=play continues

Was the bend serious in nature and did it require a stoppage? True=stop play False=play continues Wait, play stopped when the goal was scored so the referee didn't have to stop play to evaluate the injury....

Was this injury contrived to stop play? True=caution for unsporting behaviour and the player leaves the field to recover his faculties. False=no action beyond the player leaves the field to recover his faculties.

Notice all of these things require the referee to think well beyond his first couple of years experience. I'll wager that when all this happened the referee was well behind play and fatigued to the point of being unable to think rationally. If thinking rationally our erstwhile referee is going to allow Schmucatella adequate time, off the field, to recover his injury, isn't he???

Bottom line, in this no brainer, a goal is scored. Play restarts with a kick off. The assistant is listened to and thanked for his information. Schmucatella is attended to according to the nature of his injury or misconduct. Play restarts with a kick off. The coach recovers from this life threatening episode and continues worrying about global warming and world peace...

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

If the referee accepted his AR's signal that there was a serious injury, then the goal would not count, and the game would be started with a dropped ball. That's because the game was stopped for a reason not otherwise specified in the Laws. (See Law 8) The location for the dropped ball is where the ball was when the game was stopped. So, where was the ball when the AR waved the flag? (I assume he was a neutral assistant referee, not a club linesman.)

Law 5 tells us that the referee stops play for a serious injury, but allows play to continue if the injury is not serious. We were not there, so we cannot determine whether this player was seriously injured or not.

The referee may act on the advice of an assistant referee if he has not seen an incident, and may change his call if play has not yet restarted. Since the change took place before the kickoff, the ref had the right to change his mind - which is evidently what happened in your game. Sometimes things just happen that way.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

It sounds as if everything the referee did was well grounded within Law. Whether or not this was a smart decision is another matter.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 15277

See Question: 15280