Question Number: 17196

Mechanics 10/8/2007

RE: Select to High School Other

Franco of Bloomington, USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 17128

I appreciate your answers and I did read the "advice to the referees", but I wanted to hear how the staff applies the laws and not just how it reads.

Many things that are written black and white are not always applied that way and then some things that appear to be ambiguos are applied as if they were written on stone tablets. Sometimes you say the "rule book clearly states" and apply it and then ohter times its "its no big deal", "its trifling breakage of the laws" so I wanted to hear from the hourse's mouth so to speak on how experienced referee's apply the laws and this was one that I was curious about.

Some observations that appear to repeat themselves in the games I watch are (observations from rec to pro):

1. The ten yards during free kicks are not enforced and attacking suffers. Defending teams continually break the laws and many refs do nothing and it appears to become law, BLACK AND WHITE
2. Phantom fouls are used to stop a game to take care of other situations that really had nothing to do with why the game was stopped, not in the Law book. NOT BLACK AND WHITE
3. The boundaries include the lines and its all ball over all line unless its a corner kick then the rules seem to change in that the ball must contact a portion of the white line. I would have thought that would have been trifling? NOT BLACK AND WHITE
4. Keepers leave the line and move forward EVERY time before the ball is kicked during PKs in professional games. Its a given! NOT BLACK AND WHITE
5. Seems to be a difference in deliberately handling the ball relative to where it occured and who did it. Attackers are more likely to get DHB called on them in the penalty area than say a defender is in the penalty area. Should not matter where or who did it. If ball even just knicks an attacker in the penalty area in the top leagues its a call, but defenders have to be real obvious before the PK is awarded. NOT BLACK AND WHITE
6. Many DHBs calls are not deliberate. In fact how many times does any player deliberatelty handle the ball if you consider the Webster definition of deliberate. BLACK AND WHITE
7. For obvious safety reasons you can't wear jewelry of any kind or anywhere on your body unless it has medical information on it NOT BLACK AND WHITE.
8. Referees constantly allow IDFK be set to a direct kick by a player simply touching the ball (quivering and trembling) and not moving it by a kicking motion BLACK AND WHITE.
9. I here trifling used in some instances that are violations of the Laws of the game, we say it really didn't matter or no advantage gained, but then a throw in violation is called and posession is changed becasue a players foot lifted a microseceond before the ball was released or he or she accidently spiked the ball into the ground. Both teams really had no problem with the violation and neither teams gained an advantage by the incorrect throw.

So trifling is the JOKER in the deck to be used as needed. Trifling is the catch-all tool/weapon that Batman would have had on his belt to get him out of every situation.

So in some cases, as I have mentioned before, I ask things that I don't know, things I don't have a clue about, things that I think I know, things that I am rather sure I know and things that fall into grey areas and I want to hear how others would apply the laws of the game.

Back to the original- I still say goal kick regardless of age.

Much thanks!

Franco

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Batman had trifling powder, trifling liquid AND trifling paste in his utility belt. I think Spider-man uses a trifling form of webbing and he, of course, has trifling spider sense!!!!

Answer provided by Referee MrRef

Franco your task for the day is get hold of a copy of Advice to referees on the Laws of the Game 2007 [ATR] from US Soccer [$4.95 +shipping] and read carefully and see if any of the 63 changes this year offer suggestions or clarifications to you.

To your points:

1. See ATR 13.3/4

2. If In The Opinion Of The Referee [ITOOTR] the seven most important words in the world.

3. See ATR 17.1

4. ITOOTR

5. See ATR 12.9-11

6. ITOOTR

7. See ATR 4.3

8. See ATR 13.5

9. A throw-in is a restart of play. A throw-in may be classified as properly taken or improperly taken to say it in black and white. It may also be classified as ugly [ITOOTR] thereby getting play restarted so we don't stand around doing something we should have learned in practice.

Not to the big word, trifling. Think who is it trifling to? You, NOT... The player it is being done to and you get paid the big bucks to be close enough to that player so you can be able to tell. If you don't know then you must ask him!!! Dubious is when you, your linesmen, players, the [eech] coaches, spectators and the man on the street can't tell if what happened was anything special. You don't whistle either of them! HOWEVER the trivial stuff counts toward a persistent infringement booking [see ATR 5.5].

Get stuck into ATR and let us know what you think about the changes, if they have helped you understand better. Once that's done compare the folks listed in the Acknowledgments of ATR to the list of panelists on this website and see if you notice anything...

Also, kindly remember we are not an official source of information, we are not the burning bush of US Soccer or any other national organization, we're just a bunch of referees who think we can fill in a few holes in referee training, spectator awareness, education of coaches and are volunteers at that. We all work the same, untaxable [so far], wage; nothing!

Regards,