Question Number: 22411

Law 5 - The Referee 11/1/2009

RE: U14 Division 1 Boys Under 15

Rob Plaza of Houston, TX USA asks...

U14 Division 1 Boys. My son plays keeper.

There was a break-a-way from the center of the field coming my son's way. My son moved way up. The ball got popped into the air where my son grabbed it with his hands. Unfortunately he was 2 or 3 feet over the 18 yard line. The ref whistled, showed my son a yellow card and gave the other team a direct kick from the infraction point a couple of feet in front of the goal.

Question 1: Is this correct. Some say it should have been a red card.

After the game, my son told me that when this happened the ref spoke at length with him, 3 or 4 lengthy sentences. Unfortunately the the ref spoke in Spanish. My son did not understand a word and replied at the end 'yes sir'. My son wishes he knew what the ref said. My recommendation to my son was to as soon as the ref started speaking in Spanish, My son should have said politely, 'please speak in English'.

Question 2: Is my recommendation to my son appropriate?

We are a non-Spanish team, though the kids remember our trainer talking to the ref before the game in English. Our team captain said the ref spoke very little at the coin toss. The kids my son spoke with said they only remember the ref speaking Spanish the entire game.

Question 3: How do refs handle the language situation when one team is a predominantly English speaking team and the other team is predominantly Spanish speaking?

Question 4: What happens if the ref is not comfortable speaking in English.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Q1 - it could have been a red card for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity. Perhaps the ref was feeling lenient. Or perhaps there were other circumstances, such as the ref felt from the trajectory of the ball that it would have missed the net even if it hadn't been handled.

Q2 - Or slightly more politely, 'I'm sorry, I don't understand Spanish.'

Q3 - If as referee you don't speak the language of a team, you can't converse with them. You can still get your point across with gestures and simple words. Most people understand things like 'No', 'Don't', 'Stop' in other languages.

Q4 - There is no requirement that a ref must speak English, any more than there is a requirement that a person who does speak English must learn another language (or 6 or 8). However, referees who commonly work in multi-cultural areas will often learn words and phrases in other languages.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
Question 1
Once the goalkeeper commits a foul including handling outside the penalty area the referee has to make a decision whether to caution or dismiss or indeed to do nothing. The best way is to explain these with examples
1. Goalkeeper comes out to save a ball, catches it inside the penalty area and then slides accidentally outside the penalty area. That would be a direct free kick and no caution.
2. Goalkeeper advances outside the penalty area and the ball is being chased down by a forward who is say 7/8 yards away. Ball bounces unexpectedly and the keeper handles the ball to ensure that the forward would not get the ball. That would be a caution for unsporting behaviour only as it did not deny an obvious goal scoring opportunity due to the fact that the forward did not have control or possession of the ball.
3. Goalkeeper comes out of his penalty area to confront an attacker with the ball. He shoots and the goalkeeper handles the ball. If the referee is certain that the ball is going towards the goal then the keeper is dismissed for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity. If the referee is not sure that it has denied a goal such as the shot was going wide then it is a caution for unsporting behaviour. As the skill and age levels increase the referee's tolerance level drops.
Question 2 & 3
During the game there is little need for communication really except among the team. It is an international game with mainly the same laws. The yellow and red cards were introduced for this very reason of assisting communication. When a player sees a card it conveys a message. I could easily referee a game without saying a word.
Question 4
The World Cup in its early years had players from all over the world with only their native languages and the communication was primarily by signals, gestures etc. It did have its problems the main one being the conveying of cautions and dismissals verbally. For this reason the yellow and red card was introduced by Ken Aston an English referee who clearly saw the solution to this problem. In one famous WC game the player did not know that the ref had dismissed him. With cards it became very clear.
In general it is a simple game. The ball is played until the whistle blows. The referee points the direction of the restart. If he cautions he shows a yellow card etc. I could easily referee two Spanish teams with a few gestures, a few simple words, the whistle and cards.
I could not explain any decision in Spanish but I don't really need to

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

A sendoff (red card) requires that the referee conclude that, but for the handling, the ball likely would have gone into the goal. A caution (yellow card) is appropriate where the referee concludes that the deliberate handling was a tactical foul which interfered with an attack. The norm when a goal keeper handles the ball outside the area is is just a foul.

We have a number of referees who predominantly speak spanish and who speak little english. We have a number of teams who predominantly speak spanish, with referees who predominantly speak english. Many times another member of the referee team may be confortable in either language. As long as all are treated with respect, it is relatively easy to bridge language issues. My son played with a teammate who once got a yellow card for flatly ignoring the referee's private comments, until the captain explained that the player was deaf. The referee found another way to communicate what was necessary.

I fear that your recommendation might be treated as dissent, since telling someone to speak english can be misunderstood as an insult. IMO, the better solution than 'please speak english' is 'no hablo espanol.' (Travelers know that any attempt to speak the other person's language usually brings warmth and assistance.)

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

1. The restart makes no sense. The handling occurred outside the penalty area and that's where the DFK should have taken place. A DFK can never be awarded a few feet from the goal to the attacking team. All DFK fouls committed by the defense within their penalty area result in penalty kicks. Even if this were an IDFK, the ball would never be placed a few feet from the goal, it would be placed on the 6 yard line. Was the yellow card proper? I don't know. If your son was last defender and the referee felt the ball would have scored but for the handling then a send-off and red card would have been possible.

2. That's a tough one. In respect to the referee I would have preferred your son say No habla Espanol which almost everyone knows. Our League is mainly English speaking but I have gone to great effort with the help of a Spanish speaking friend to learn every curse word/phrase and every Spanish insult I can. I've been able to even caution an Hispanic player for dissent and when he complained in English I translated what he said so he knew I knew exactly what he had said and I could have sent him off.

3. You do the best you can. With older kids it's not as difficult but with 10 year olds it's almost impossible to explain anything of you're not being understood.

4. He doesn't speak English and uses international signals.