Question Number: 23184

Law 5 - The Referee 4/26/2010

RE: Under 17

Dave of Des Moines, IA US asks...

AR throws up flag for a bad throw in.
I wave it down.
Players react to the flag and the next thing I know, a team mate of the thrower picks up the ball inside the PA!
I experience one of those 'special' referee 'moments'.
In a bit of a panic I stop play and decide to revert back to the bad throw-in call and award throw in to other team.
This does NOT look well.
Coaches had some questions but all thought it was fair but I want to know if this is allowed in the mechanics.
Did I muff this one big time?
Did I wimp out by not awarding a PK?
If it helps, after this I did 'encourage' the players to play till the whistle.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

A wise man once wrote: 'The Laws of the Game come in a flexible book, one that allows you to bend the Law ? as long as you do not spill any of the words in the process.'

Deciding to stop play the moment before the player picked up the ball seems to me a fine example of bending the law in an amateur match.

But, the laws already provide a restart without the cover of what was clearly (to you and after you informed them, everyone else) of a foul throw-in. How would the players have responded if you 'checked the roundness of the ball,' a reminder of play to the whistle, and restarted with a dropped ball?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Dave
The key here is the pre match discussion between the CR and the ARs. I say to the ARs that they are responsible for foot faults along along the touchline and I am responsible for the throw in mechanism. So unless the player has a foot clearly over the line on the FOP the AR does not call incorrectly taken TIs.
Now in this case that did not happen I assume so I believe that you made the 'best' decision for the game. If you had given the penalty it would have been viewed very negatively by the conceding team and they would argue that the AR called for an incorrectly taken TI that a referee had to disagree with.
I would not see it as a muff or a wimp out but sensible Law 18 decision in the circumstances. Learn from it and ensure the proper instructions are agreed in advance among the referee crew.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Hi, Dave! Deep breath. The players clearly didn't see you wave the flag down, and reacted without a whistle. Oops. While we normally aren't in the business of rescuing players from themselves, we still need to work not to unduly confuse them with our mechanics, which sounds like what happened here.

You did the next best thing, which was calling the illegal throw, even though you did not blow the whistle. This applied common sense to the situation. I would have a word with the player at the next opportunity about playing to the whistle, but leave it at that.

If your AR was doing as instructed in the pre-game, no worries. If not, or if the pre-game didn't cover such items, something to think about for the next time.