Question Number: 22003

Law 6 - Assistant Referee 9/18/2009

RE: Rec Under 10

Channing Lefebvre of Newport Beach, CA USA asks...

If you have two ARs and one is certified and the other is a club linesman, should you let one make offside calls and not the other?

Thanks for your continued help!

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Yes. The club linesman should only signal ball in or out of play, and should not signal offside. The certified assistant referee should provide full information to the referee concerning fouls, misconduct, and offside.

Unlike certified assistants, club linesmen are not trained in offside, are unlikely to be in the correct position to make a determination either of offside position or active involvement, and, more importantly, are not neutral.

Assistant referees are trained to do so, are neutral, and greatly help the referee (who may need to adjust positioning to cover offside in one half of the field). Because the teams switch sides at half- time each team gets equal advantage (and disadvantage) from having a trained assistant referee for half of the match.

Obviously, two certified assistant referees are better than one.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Club linesmen, even if trained, have no authority to make ANY calls. I have then stand at the corner flag and watch the touchline and the goal line and tell them to raise the flag only if all of the ball has crossed over all of the line. I don't want them to signal possession either; just if the ball went out of play.
Here's what the current Advice To Referees On The Laws Of The Game has to say:

6.6 CLUB LINESMEN
Where neutral assistant referees are not available, the referee may use club linesmen. Club linesmen should report to the referee before the start of the game for instructions. The referee should make it clear that the decision of the referee is final and must not be questioned. The relationship of club linesmen to the referee must be one of assistance, without undue interference or any opposition. Club linesmen are to signal only when the ball is entirely over the goal line or touch line.

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

See Question: 22049