Question Number: 24825

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 4/16/2011

RE: Rec Plus Under 19

Cara of Brownsburg, Indiana USA asks...

Can a referee give a caution for impeeding? He called it Obstruction, but Laws of the game removed that term and it's now called impeeding.

I looked at my laws of the game and under cautionable offences, impeeding isn't one of those. Also, he awarded a DFK whick is incorrect, it's an IDFK.

As a referee assignor, I want to make sure that this referee knows the laws of the game correctly and doesn't look foolish.

Thanks!

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Cara
Fouls in their own right are not cautionable offences. For the foul to merit a caution it has to do something else such as be unsporting or be reckless.
Unsporting can mean preventing an opponent gaining possession of the ball in a favourable position or taking up an advantageous position or committing a foul for the tactical purpose of interfering with or breaking up a promising attack etc.
Older referees use the term obstruction which is no longer part of the Laws of the Game. The old term allowed for contact but with impeding there is no contact. Indeed impeding with an IDFK restart is a rare foul as most situations its end up in contact. I suspect in your scenario it is likely that there was contact so it is not impeding but rather a holding/charging foul which is a direct free kick restart. A caution for unsporting behaviour must be issued when a player holds an opponent to prevent him gaining possession of the ball or taking up an advantageous position

Answer provided by Referee Gene Nagy

Cara, impeding simply means getting in he way of an opponent and indeed it used to be called obstruction. You are correct that there is no caution for impeding. However, an impeding offense may cause a caution (rare) but the caution should be properly called USB, which is the catch-all caution and which we use if the misconduct does not fit into the other six categories.
In addition, impeding could even cause a send off in 'denying a goal scoring opportunity'. Now I have never seen it or heard of such a scenario but nonetheless it is theoretically possible.
As far as the DFK is concerned, impeding is punished by an IDFK. If the referee gave a DFK for impeding, he erred. However I must say that it is almost impossible to impede and NOT touch the opponent. This is where the ref may wriggle out of it: he may just say that it was push or hold or charging AFTER he impeded and he punished the more serious foul.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Well, looks like this referee is 0 for 2. Your job as an assignor now is to re-educate this referee.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 31825