Question Number: 21856

Law 15 - Throw In 8/30/2009

RE: Select Under 14

Jane of Owensboro, KY USA asks...

I saw this at a tournament last year & have been pondering the call(s) ever since.

Red team has a primary player for taking all of their throw-ins. On every throw-in, one player from the Blue team rushed him as he took the throw, literally charging at him as he released the ball. Should that have been called by the referee? It was not & it kept happening over & over & over.

Finally, after many incidents of being charged (and even shoved several times) by the Blue player, the Red player taking the throw in let fly directly at the Blue player as he rushed in. It wasn't pretty. The ball struck the blue player directly in the face & the combined impact (of both the Red player's throw and the Blue player's momentum) took him to the ground with blood streaming from his nose.

All heck broke loose. Parents were screaming at each other. Players were screaming at each other. The situation was escalating rapidly as the center referee just stood there looking confused at what had just occurred & his a/r's headed rapidly towards the far ends of the field - as far from the melee as they could get.

After several extremely tense minutes, the tournament director came over, asked the center referee what had happened, and then instructed him to award a Yellow Card to the Red player and a Direct Kick to the Blue team. Was this the correct decision?

And regardless of whether the final call was correct or not, what could the center ref have done to defuse the situation before it reached the point where the Red player finally retaliated?

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

These days there is a requirement that players remain 2 metres away from the thrower, and failing to abide by this is a cautionable offence.

If the blue player remains outside of this zone - at least until the moment of release - then there isn't much that can be done. If, however, he continues his run and runs into the opponent then he can be penalised for charging.

This sounds like an incident where everybody on the field, even the referee, knows that there is something wrong and outside of the spirit of the laws that is going on, and knows it is something that could quite easily lead to retaliation (as it did), but isn't sure what to do. In such a case, it may be worthwhile to penalise the Blue player even if the contact on the follow-through is relatively minor. First time? Maybe give him the benefit of the doubt, or a quick verbal warning to 'take it easy'. 2nd time it happens? Ok, it's becoming a pattern. If he's made contact we can push for a foul and have a word with him. If he does it again, then because we've publicly warned him for the earlier one it makes it very easy to caution him.

Of course, if there is significant contact then he can be cautioned quite easily for a late charge.

As for what happened at this incident - players are not allowed to use restarts as an excuse to strike a player in a careless, reckless or excessive fashion. If the referee believes that the 'thrower' has thrown the ball, legally, but in such a way that he has used it to deliberately strike an opponent then the referee can certainly take action. The force used and the part of the body the ball is aimed at are two things the referee can take into consideration. In the case above, where the Red player has clearly thrown the ball with force at the Blue player's face, he must be sent off with a direct free kick to the Blue team.

Unfortunately this sounds like an avoidable situation. By your description of the referee's failure to control this, and his response to the drama that followed, it sounds like a lack of experience may have been the problem here. There isn't really any way around such a problem; while we can educate until the cows come home we can't possibly cover every scenario, so experience provides for the rest of a referee's education. As we all know, there's only one way to gain experience.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

The Red player taking the throw should have been shown the red card for violent conduct and sent off immediately. No matter how frustrated he was, his actions are inexcusable.

Unfortunately, this all could have been avoided had the referee simply followed the Laws Of The Game which
1. Require all opponents to be at least 2 yards from the player taking the throw and
2. No opponent is allowed to make motions or movements that will interfere with the taking of the throw.

The first time a Blue player charged the Red thrower, the clueless referee should have blown his whistle and at the least, explained to everyone that every opponent was to be 2 yards away and no opponent could charge the thrower or do anything that would in any way interfere with the taking of the throw. This being Select U 14, the players should know the Law and were it me, on the first occurrence, the Blue player would have been cautioned and shown the yellow card.

Also, the Red player taking the throw, instead of taking matters into his own hands, could simply have asked the referee to make the Blue players stop their illegal behavior.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

The Blue player's behavior was inexcusable as it is nothing but intimidation. The referee should have dealt him a caution at the first instance where the Blue player charged the thrower and especially if he actually touched him. That caution could have been for either violating the 2 yard requirement, or for unsporting behavior for interfering with the thrower.

Under no circumstances should he have been allowed to continue in the game if he did it a second time - a second caution, again for either of the above reasons, and a sending off. Perhaps he would have learned a valuable lesson and perhaps we would never have reached the point where Red felt the need to retaliate for his own safety.

Because the referee failed to protect the thrower, the thrower took matters into his own hands - the usual result of the referee not doing his job. What he did is also inexcusable, even if it is understandable, and he should have been sent off for violent conduct. That would result in a direct free kick for Blue's team, unless the referee decided that the Blue player's misconduct came first, which would result in an IDFK for the thrower's team (unless the referee thought Blue unfairly jumped at or charged the thrower, which would be a DFK).

The tournament director has ZERO authority to order any kind of restart. Only the referee has this authority, and given the circumstances, perhaps the referee should have terminated the game.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

It occurs to me that you are using the word 'charge' in a general sense, not in the soccer sense. In soccer, a charge is when one player bumps against the other while making a play for the ball. Charging can be legal or illegal, depending on the game situation and the amount of force used. A legal charge is made mostly shoulder-to-shoulder, and the ball must be within playing distance. Obviously charging a player in the act of taking a throw-in is not allowable.

But it seems you may be using the word 'charge' in the sense of a bull charging a matator. If the opposing players were trying to intimidate the thrower by rushing at him, getting in his face, they should be cautioned. You mention the thrower even being pushed; clearly the opponents were closer than the 2 yards/meters allowed by the Laws. The referee might give one warning, but if it goes unheeded and they continue to intimidate, they should be dealt with immediately and decisively.