Question Number: 22731

Law 5 - The Referee 1/18/2010

RE: Rec Adult

Adam Wolstenholme of Manchester, England asks...

The other day i was offificating in a game, the keeper went down hurt and the team continued to attack, is it correct that the referee should stop the game and the restart should be a drop ball from the place the ball was at the time of the stoppage?

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Ordinarily, the referee will stop play when any player is seriously injured. When a lesser injury affects the goalkeeper, the referee may wait a moment or so if the attacking team has an imminent opportunity to score a goal but then should stop play.

When play is stopped for an injury, the correct restart is a dropped ball.

Answer provided by Referee Tom Stagliano

Referee Wolstenholme

Referee Wickham is correct.

For any serious injury (head or neck) stop play immediately.

For a non serious injury involving the goal keeper, if the attacking team can put a shot on goal within a second or two (continuing action), then allow that time to elapse and the game to continue before stopping play. However, if the play is heading away from that goal, and the goal keeper is still down, then stop play, let the keeper be attended to, and restart with a dropped ball.

For other players, if it is non-serious injury, allow play to continue and usually the other players will put the ball out of play to allow the injury to be attended to. That is part of the sporting play that is expected with soccer.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

One is tempted by the argument that every team must have a goalkeeper, and thus if the goalkeeper is hurt the game must stop immediately. There are problems with this:
-- The team does have a goalkeeper; he just isn't acting like one at the moment. It is no different than if the goalkeeper decided to join the attackers at the other end of the field.
-- As soon as keepers figure out that the game stops should they so much as stub a toe, they will be flopping all over the place whenever they are beat.

My colleagues are correct that the game is stopped only for serious injuries. What that means differs based on age and game level. At U8 boo-boo's are serious. In the EPL it pretty much takes broken bones or spurting blood (despite several players' attempts to force the referee's hand by screaming and rolling about on the ground). OK, both of those extremes are a little facetious. But you get the point. Goalkeepers should be given only the same protections as the rest of the players have. It takes a couple of seconds to see if any player can recover from an injurious situation, except for obvious cases where heads collide and both players go down like a sack of bricks. If the opponents are able to capitalize on the situation and score during that evaluation period, it's a good goal.

There was a video circulating a few months ago where in a 1-on-1 situation, the goalkeeper twisted his ankle or something and went down. The attacker continued on and scored just a moment later. Good goal. And as I recall, the keeper was able to continue on in the game, proving that the injury was not serious.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

It all depends on what hurt means here in context of the age and skill level of the players. My colleagues have outlined quite nicely the differences between a 'serious' injury - one that the referee immediately knows means the game must stop (head or neck injuries, blood and/or broken parts), and other injuries that need a few moments of evaluation to determine whether or not they are truly serious enough (given the age and skill level) to require the game to stop.

The restart, should the game be stopped for an injury, is indeed a dropped ball, and it does take place from where the ball was when the whistle blew (except if the ball was in the goal area, when we then move it out to the closest spot on the top of the goal area line).

USSF has a directive for our referees in these situations, and I quote: "Team Responsibilities Relating to Injured Players
Since the referee will only stop play for ?serious injuries,? it is the responsibility of each team to determine whether to continue to play or to play the ball out of play. A team with an injured player who continues playing assumes the responsibility in the event they lose possession of the ball. Similarly, a team is not required to play the ball out of play when an opposing player has been injured (a non-serious injury). It is hoped that ?fair play? will prevail."