Question Number: 19512

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 6/24/2008

RE: Professional

Thomas of Chilliwack, BC Canada asks...

This question is a follow up to question 19479

Like many other people, I saw this incident, and I too wondererd what was going on. I have just received this email from the Canadian Soccer Association Director of Referees:

'I am sure many of you saw over the weekend Slovakian referee Lubos Michel show a red card for a second offence to Russian defender Denis Kolodin in the quarter-final match with Netherlands only to withdraw it after speaking with his assistant referee. UEFA have stated that the referee had been convinced by his assistant that Kolodin's tackle did not warrant a caution.

This demonstrates an example of cooperation between referees and their assistants; because they had the conversation and the decision was reconsidered. Regardless of all the modern technology (beep flags and earpiece communication) the face to face conversation was the major selling point in getting this decision correct.

I know that many commentators have speculated that the second caution had been overturned due to the ball being out of play when the challenge was made. For the avoidance of doubt you are reminded that the status of the ball has no bearing on the sanctioning of a player in this regard. If the assistant referee had failed to convince the referee that the challenge was not cautionable, then regardless of whether the ball was out of play the referee must apply the appropriate disciplinary sanction and in this case dismiss the player from the field. Of course the restart would revert to the where the ball was out of play.'


I just though I'd share this, for I have been looking on the FIFA, UEFA, and EURO 2008 sites, and have been unable to find any information regarding the decision.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Isn't it amazing what asking the referee what he thought about can do for clarity! And here I've been thinking there might have been a courage issue blazing in out faces. I was correct but it was in the opposite direction, to allow the advice of an assistant in this decision demanded serious amounts of courage given the card had already been waved about. This is laudable! The crew acted, conferred and got it right. Well done all.

Again we saw what we saw and what we saw just wasn't close to what happened. I tend to think of what happened to Esse Baharmast when he was vilified by the world's press for acting correctly. Lubos Michel did so as well, though I still wish the mechanics of Law 12 would have been followed.

'A player is cautioned [first] and shown the yellow card [second] if he commits any of the following seven offences:'

This would have made it harder to have the yellow card out in the open, for all to see, until after any necessary conversations were concluded.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Thanks for the commuication Thomas,
Wow our national Canadian soccer body actually getting out there to enlighten the masses, like that a lot, more of this kind of action is required! This is the stuff that SHOULD be common fodder for all to access.

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The USSF has put out a memo as well:

http://www.ussoccer-data.com/docfile/Euro08RescindACard/Euro08RescindACard.htm

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

See Question: 19554