Question Number: 26404

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 6/1/2012

RE: rec High School

Michael of Arlington Heights, IL Illinois United States asks...

Two opponents are battling for a ball, but both are pushing each other, and neither is gaining an advantage. What do I do?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Michael
Has a foul been committed and by whom? If the players are battling for the ball and neither feel that they are being fouled or committing a foul I would tend to allow play to continue. The only difficulty is that the player that loses out along with his team mates could then complain about the foul not being awarded.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

These are difficult situations, but fairly common ones.

When both players are committing an action that seems close to a foul, then I believe the referee has a few options to choose from:

-penalise the first player who started pushing/holding (however, often it isn't a foul when it first starts)
-penalise the player who does it the most/worst (though then players may feel like you're always missing the first foul)
-simply allow both players to get on with it, assuming they're both doing it at mostly the same level and it hasn't become too severe.

However, the last 2 options also run the risk one one player getting frustrated and suddenly escalating the situation.

Experience and a feel for the match will often help here, but generally as long as both players seem happy to keep competing and neither player is standing out in terms of a foul, then the referee might be best to simply allow it to continue.

Of course, whoever loses the tackle will complain!

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

See Question: 26423