Question Number: 24949

Law 5 - The Referee 5/15/2011

RE: state cup Under 16

sharkhacker4 of east northport, new york suffolk asks...

center ref running late reffing a state cup before our game . The Two a.rs are there I ask them what is going on they said the center ref is running late the game he is reffing went to over time. so i said what will he be getting here. our game is at 2:30 the ar said he will be here at 3:15 ok . So i went to the mothers and fathers to tell them what is going on. 5 min go by and i see them telling the two teams lets go we are going to start the game. the one AR is now the center ref he then lets a 12 year old kid do the sidelines when i saw that i ask the AR on our that didn't like that . He said he will fix that but he didn't the half ended
the ref that is late gets there 15 min later so that ref gets the two coaches together and said i will be in the center ref this half because the AR that was in the center the first half is not feeling well. then he went to the field. and the ar that was in the center went to the sidelines and ref the hole sec half if he was not well y did he ref. my question can we protest this game ?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
There are a number of questions that need to be answered here along with a number of comments.
1. Was the AR who took over the centre referee duties entitled and certified to do so? I suspect he was as he would not have taken on the duties were he not. He would also take over if the CR got injured anyway
2. Was the replacement assistant doing ball in and out only and therefore acting as a linesman only?
3. There is nothing wrong with the appointed Centre Referee taking over the referee duties when he arrives particularly if the existing Centre Referee is unable/does not want to continue. The important part is that the referee taking over is fully brifed on elapsed time, cautions, goals, major incidents
4. There is nothing wrong with a Centre Referee taking over AR duties for part of the match. Indeed I have seen this happen where the CR cannot continue. It is also part of the pre match briefing as to what if scenarios such as illness, injury
I would believe that the only way that the game could be protested is if the AR that was centre for the 1st half was not certified to do that. Most if not all senior ARs in this situation would be certified and would take over from the CR should the need arise.
Poor planning here by the appointed CR to allow this late arrival to happen yet that is not protestable whatever about complaining about the incident.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Probably not.

When the assigned referee is not present, the senior assistant referee may start the match and use a club lines person along one touchline. (I assume that all referees were certified and qualified to do a match at this age level.)

The referee who started the match is expected to finish it, even when the assigned referee arrives late. But, when a referee who starts a match is injured or not feeling well, a certified and qualified assistant referee may take over and finish the match. If injury or illness is so severe, a single referee can complete the match using two club lines.

If the state cup tournament adopted other procedures for replacing referees (some tournaments have standby referees for such circumstances), the referees should follow those procedures. Otherwise, the assistant referee and referee appear to have followed the correct procedure.

That said, it is unfortunate that you did not have three trained referees for the entire state cup match, and that one was not feeling well.