Question Number: 25138

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 6/26/2011

Nick Broderick of St. John's, Newfoundland Canada asks...

There was an interesting incident that caught my attention during a FIFA U17 WC match on Saturday between Canada and Rwanda. A Canadian player was about to take a throw-in about halfway into the Rwandan half. A Rwandan player was standing what appeared to be three from the thrower. As the ball was delivered, the Rwandan defender jumped in an attempt to block the delivery. The referee stopped play and awarded an indirect free kick to the Canadian team from where the Rwandan player stood and the defender received no sanction.

Assume for a moment that the Rwandan defender did, in fact, fail to respect the required two yard distance. (The referee believed it to be so, else why would he intervene?) I'm 99.999...% sure this is wrong: the defender should be cautioned for failing to respect the required distance and the throw-in retaken, no? Please confirm that I am not the one succumbing to myths! And secondly, if this is the correct course of action, where do so many referees get the idea that infringing the required distance should result in an indirect free kick to the thrower's team? I've even heard instructors teaching this (and, it appears, so did the fledgling FIFA referee in charge of this WC match.)

Answer provided by Referee Gene Nagy

Nick, sadly I didn't see the game but Law 15 requires refs to caution a player found guilty of distracting the thrower. In the back of the book, under ADVICE you will see that the restart is a retake of the throw-in.
It would appear that the ref erred twice; once in not giving a mandatory caution and incorrect restart.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Nick
A common enough error by a referee. I had to point this out to a colleague recently in a game that the restart is a throw in. The correct decision is a caution and a retake of the throw in.

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