Question Number: 15828

Mechanics 6/19/2007

RE: Select Under 19

Kris of Erie, PA USA asks...

White has the ball on the attack and is fouled about 15 yards into the orange half. The ref awards foul and white goes to take quick restart while orange player is only five yards off the ball. Orange player jumps up to stop ball with forearm bent and leading the body, the ball strikes orange on the forearm and drops to the ground. Ref blows whistle and shows yellow then red and says that is for encroachment and off you go. This would have been orange players first card. I think he carded for encroachment then the deliberate hand ball thus two yellows equal red. I was wondering if this was the right mechanics or if you show yellow twice then red

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Kris here we look to Advice to Referees on the Laws of the Game to see if there is written procedure for the referee to follow. Paragraph 12.27 addresses several forms of misconduct at the same time and asks the referee to decide whether to caution each one separately [in which case, the second caution must also be followed by a sending-off and the showing of the red card] or to issue a single caution for the total behaviour.

Those well versed in the living history of The Game remember International FA Board Decision 12 of Law 12 from before the general rewrite of 1997.

(12) If, when a referee is about to caution a player, and before he has done so, the player commits another offence which merits a caution, the player shall be sent off the field of play.

Notice this does not specify how the cards are displayed! Nor do FIFA explain this evolution in Q&A 2006. This establishes the Advice to Referees as the guidance to to the referee's mechanics -- yellow, yellow, red.

Right the mechanics, in America, are handled. Now let us look to how things appeared. A player fails to respect the required distance and moves to intercept a quickly taken free kick. This is a cautionable event, though very few referees recognise it for what it is.

The ball hits the hand or arm. Television commentators here and abroad, mistakenly, call this "deliberate handball" and perpetuate the myth there is a cautionable offence called deliberate handball. This is pure rubbish!

There are circumstances when a caution for unsporting behaviour is required when a player deliberately handles the ball, e.g. when a player:

deliberately and blatantly handles the ball to pr prevent an opponent event gaining possession

attempts to score a goal by deliberately handling the ball

In the events you describe the handling is NOT one of those! In fact you say the handling was more along the lines of a ball to arm thing, abet very near a free kick.

Now we must attend to the opinions of the referee regarding facts connected with play. The referee made the statement one caution was for failing to respect the required distance, good! The off you go WAS not proper because there was no sending-off offence communicated to the player. He was just sent-off. Poor mechanics and something an assessor should be clever enough to correct. The match report might, big hope here, explain why the sending-off happened. Two cautions in the same match, and what they were. A caution and a sending-off offence soon thereafter, perhaps uses offensive or insulting or abusive language and/or gestures...

Because it is not evident to the observer, a referee, it is most probably not clear to the player himself why he was sent-off. This is not a good thing. Most players will understand being sent-off for a specific thing and, perhaps after a while, understand and alter their conduct. This player, I fear, will not have the opportunity to change because he does not know what to change, the referee fails The Game!!!

NOTE: This response has been seen and agreed with by two US Soccer representatives

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Jon [Withheld]

Adding to mechanics...at grass roots level let me just suggest something to you if this happens. If you see the deliberate hand ball as Unsporting Behaviour constituting another caution, you may be best suited to explain to the player what is happening. Pull them aside and maybe walk them to their coach if under 18 and say something along the lines of: "I am obliged to caution you for failing to respect the required distance. You also prevented an attack with a deliberate handball thus constituting a second caution. This is a yellow for your first offense (Raise yellow card and bring back down) This is your caution for your second offense (Raise yellow card and bring back down) I therefore have to dismiss you for a second cautionable offense in the same game (Raise Red Card and allow player to leave the field) BE EXPLICIT IN THIS SITUATION. Otherewise you may find your control of the touchline lost.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

If things transpired as you state, I have a major problem with this referee's actions. No doubt the caution was justified and it appears the player also deliberately handled the ball. But where was the sending off offense? I fail to see how this handling violation warranted a a second caution and even if it did, the referee HAS to show a second yellow card followed by a red card, not simply yellow then red. If it was the players second caution in the match, the sending off is correct but the referee certainly would have said so. Since the violation occured fairly far away from the defenders goal line, I could not imagine the referee thinking the player denied an obvious goal scoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball. Again, there is no cautionable offence known as "delberate handball". In fact, unless the handling IS deliberate, it's not a foul. Ref Fleischer correctly gives the instances where a handling offence MAY be cautionable but none of those apply here. If you can somehow find out why the referee sent the player off, we would be most interested in hearing back from you.