Question Number: 25030

Law 5 - The Referee 5/30/2011

RE: Adult

Dag E. of Toronto, Canada asks...

We were recently at a game where player A from team A was knocked down inside team B's 18 yard penalty area. Player A did not have a play on the ball. Player A claimed that he was hit by player B from team B. Player B denied having hit him and said that they simply bumped into one another. The feferee did not see what happened and asked the linesman, who also did not see what happened. After a minute or so and some discussions the referee awarded a penalty kick to team A.

Can the referee award a foul if he nor the linesman saw what happened?

Thanks,

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
Clearly a referee cannot award a foul if he did not see it. A penalty call is a significant decision in any game and I assume that one of the officials saw what happened in order to make the call.
I would also point out that in all my years of refereeing I have never seen a referee award something that he nor an assistant did not see.
My most recent experience of this was in a important game last season where a player alleged that he was punched by an opponent just before a free kick was to be taken. My focus happened to be on offside positions at the time and while the referee reacted to the incident he was not sure what happened and he asked my opinion. As I did not see it either the decision was to do nothing which was the only choice that we had. We suspected something untoward had happened but we could not act.
I would like to think that the referee crew here did not act without seeing it. I also doubt they would be admit to making such a call and perhaps might I suggest that their comments were made with a touch of sarcasm.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

NO NO NO!!!!
If the referee and assistant referee saw nothing and awarded a penalty kick anyway, they have made a serious error and misapplication of the Laws Of The Game. If they were stupid enough to admit they saw nothing and proceeded anyway, they, especially the referee, deserve whatever punishment a review board decides to hand down.

We all miss things. I was working a U16G game about 1o years ago and a player on one team stomped an opponent and broke her ankle. It was inside the goal area and even though I was properly positioned, I was blocked out by 2-3 players and my AR could not see anything either., What was even worse was I thought I knew who did it. But I could not call something I didn't see.

Answer provided by Referee Gene Nagy

Dag, your description of the incident is that the referee and one assistant referee (A/R) did not see what happened. I am going to assume that the other A/R or the fourth official if there was one also did not see it. If a foul was not seen by the any of the officiating team then no matter what, it cannot be called.