Question Number: 22267

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 10/17/2009

RE: Other

Steve of Stockton, CA USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 22192

In a recent Premiership match, Darren Bent scored for Sunderland against Liverpool where his shot deflected off a beach ball that had been thrown from the crowd. The goal was allowed to stand, and accounted for the only scoring in the match. It seems to me, though, that the beach ball constituted an outside agent, and therefore play should have stopped and restarted with a dropped ball. Comments?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

I agree if it clearly changed the ball flight but we will wait for the FA to weigh in! Look at questions look to questions 22262, 65, 67,71,73,77 for more on this!
Cheers
PS just some speculation I wonder if the league has a bylaw that states if the home team pitch is littered with balloons, TP or whatever any advantage of that goes to the visiting team? I do wonder if the balloons are considered part of the pitch? After all it was a Liverpool emblem on the balloon/beach ball one could consider it an own goal? ;o) I wonder if the officials felt the Liverpool fan did it deliberately trying to get play stopped? I also wonder if they could discount the contact as not affecting the overall shot. It certainly looked like the ball did change direction but perhaps it was considered as unstoppable?
I await the referee explanation should one be forth coming!

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
This is not the 1st time this happened. In the Man City v Sheffield United FA Cup game a few years ago the ball struck Blue and White balloons and that goal was allowed also. The law is not fully clear on this but if it was a ball, the game would have to be stopped and restarted with a dropped ball
' Q&A 2006 2.3 During the match, another ball enters the field of play. Should the referee stop play immediately?
The additional ball should be treated as an outside agent and the referee will stop the match if the additional ball interferes with play.
Play is restarted by a dropped ball at the place where the ball was at the time the match was stopped. * Otherwise the referee will have
the extra ball removed at the earliest possible opportunity'

Interferes with play is the key here and it is assumed that other objects can be treated as an outside agent. The difficulty for the ref is determining did the beach ball interfere with play. It clearly did make a difference and IMO it should have been a dropped ball restart. Having said that it is in the opinion of the referee and he consulted with the AR so they assumed it did not make any difference and allowed the goal. The ref and AR does not have the benefit of action replay to make a decision. I suspect had the referee seen the 'deflection' of the ball he would not have allowed it to stand.