Question Number: 22764

Law 5 - The Referee 1/28/2010

RE: Rec, Select Under 13

James of Gulf Breeze, FL USA asks...

Can a match be suspended if a spectator or coach refuses to leave the area of play after being asked to by the referee?

Thank you very much.

Answer provided by Referee Gene Nagy

James, if a coach does not leave I say unequivocally: yes, abandon the game! I give coaches one minute to leave the field and by that I mean for them to go past a point of being within earshot. He leaves or I leave.
The spectator is a bit different. Somehow you have to establish who that spectator is. Once established that he belongs to a team like a parent or friend of a player, ask the coach to remove that person. Now you give him one minute to do so. Failing that, just leave. If both teams claim ignorance then ask both coaches help to get him removed.
If you do not go to the trouble of identifying the spectator he is likely to get away with it again.
If spectators did not pay to see the match, each team, is responsible for their spectators. The team rep is the coach and he must look after his supporters. If coaches refuse to cooperate with you, rest assured the league will come down hard on team.
The fact is they don't pay you enough to get abuse thrown at you, which is what I think the spectator did.
I reffed a game at Norquay Park in Vancouver, BC, Canada where the field is a bit lower then the street on the east side. It was raining cats and dogs and there was a man sitting in his pick up, engine running, smoking a cigarette and his window half way down. Several times he yelled at me form his cozy seat. I asked one of the players who that idiot was and they said it was Johnny's dad and he always does it. So at the next whistle I asked the coach to tell that guy to shut up and the coach replied that he had no idea who that was and he cannot be expected to look after people on the street. So I said, oh is that right, well it is Johnny's dad! He looked at me for three full seconds, turned around and said to the guy in the pick up: shut the hell up! That was the last I heard of him.
So you see there are creative ways of solving problems.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Advice to Referees tells us in 5.11 that for spectator interference or any serious breech of the Laws, the match is terminated. Traditionally, terminated and abandoned are used differently. That said, in 2008, IFAB removed the word terminated from the LOTG and replaced it with abandoned. So, it is correct to say abandon the match. The referee has direct control over the behavior of coaches. The referee may dismiss the coach if he behaves irresponsibly. If the coach refuses to leave, the match should be abandoned. While the referee does not have authority over spectators, he may abandon a match for spectator interference.

In youth soccer in the US, it is generally accepted that coaches are responsible for the behavior of their parents. The referee may tell a coach to tell a parent to leave and that the game won't be restarted until the parent leaves. I like to tell coaches that he or she has 5 minutes to get the parent to leave and if the parent doesn't, the game will be abandoned and we will all go home.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Yes. It should be the last resort for the referee, rather than the first.

I find, like Ref Contarino, if the referee indicates that the match will not be restarted until X leaves, others will put pressure on X to leave. If X still refuses to leave sight and sound of the field, however, the match will not restart.

Make sure all the details are put into the referee report. It sometimes is helpful to write notes about the incident immediately after instructing X to leave. When people see the referee writing something down, it tends to reinforce its importance.