Question Number: 26706

The Technical Area 8/30/2012

RE: competetive Adult

Kurauone of harare, harare zimbabwe asks...

I need clarity on occupants of the technical area. Let's say four members of the technical team are standing but only one is conveying tactical instructions, is it allowed? This person who is giving instructions is clearliy standing a distant from the other three standing member,but all are within the confinments of the technical area . Also what is a cleverly way of dealing with coaches converying these tactical instructions while seated but this time two or three members doing so at the same time?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
According to the Laws of the Game only one person at a time is authorised to convey tactical instructions from the technical area. The remaining occupants should be seated.
However the referee must exercise some common sense in dealing with this. The referee or whoever is managing the technical area is unlikely to be bothered about technical instructions being given by more than one person. If the occupants of the technical area are standing and behaving in a responsible manner the referee will perhaps chose to ignore those standing.
I know FIFA in the past has given discretion to persons standing as long as they stayed close to side of the seated area and did not come forward to the field of play and behaved in a responsible manner
In this image I personally see nothing wrong
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fussballtrainer-18-09-2005.jpg
If the referee finds that those within the area are not acting responsibly then he uses the Laws to deal with it.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

First, the fourth official needs to discuss this topic in the pregame with the referee. Some do not care if there are two providing instructions so long as each is acting professionally. Some leagues provide additional instructions to the referees as to decorum. Then, talk to the coaches before the match begins. Players in pinnies, coaches roaming, who are the trainers, balls put away are good subjects to convey your expectations. Once the match begins, the coach's focus is on the players, and there often can be miscommunication when there are several things that need to be done.

Second, some assistant coach's role is to engage in dissent, not to give instruction. They are doing exactly what the head coach wants, with no risk to the head coach. I find that it is works well to let the head coach/manager know that you recognize the tactic and that you expect him to supervise his coach's behavior. (I usually note that getting tossed used to be my job when I was an assistant coach.) Then, when the assistant coaches are hovering near the touchline, the request for assistance is directly to the head coach.

The laws provide limited guidance to what is proper in the technical area. There is little value in trying to strictly monitor everything that happens in the technical area. You must deal with the things that interfere with the players, the match, and the match officials. For paid and professional matches, the league's policies regarding demeanor often mean that what is permitted is affected by what can be seen or heard by the public. In dealting with team officials, like dealing with players and substitutes, the fourth official should be polite and calm, but can use presence (or absence) and personality to influence behavior.