Question Number: 26949

Law 5 - The Referee 10/27/2012

RE: Town Under 14

Rob of Plymouth, Ma Us asks...

If a player is down and the ref hesitates to blow the whistle and one team scores a goal and tgen the ref blows the whistle for a player down does the goal count. Our ref called the goal back??

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

The referee is not required to stop play any time a player might be injured. Play is stopped in case of serious injury. (The decision to stop play should be affected by age
and type of contact - - the younger the players, or if the injury is to the head or chest, the referee should quickly stop play.)

It is not clear why the referee disallowed the goal. I can think of two possibilities (other than referee error):

Play is considered stopped the moment the referee decides to stop play. It is the decision, not the whistle that matters. So, if the referee decided to stop play but the goal was scored in the instant between decision and whistle, the goal must be disallowed. (Of course, only the referee knows when the decision was made.)

After the goal has been scored if the referee learns from an assistant referee that there had been a foul against the player who went down, the referee may accept the information, disallow the goal, and restart the match based on the foul. The correct mechanic for the assistant referee, however, should have been to flag for the foul when it was clear that the referee did not see it.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Rob
The injury conundrum at underage. When a player is down injured at underage coaches and parents expect the referee to stop play for the player to be dealt with. When play is not halted it causes all sorts of complaints and referees try to manage these situations as best they can. They may try to allow play to continue and to keep an eye on the 'injured' player. If the player resumes play then the referee will allow play to continue. If the referee believes that play should be stopped then he will halt play and he may have more of a focus on the injured player than the unfolding play.
You do not state how play was restarted. That is the key to the referee's decision. If it is a dropped ball then there was no offence.
Whether the referee was right or wrong and I suspect he may have been wrong, the bigger question is the manner in which all injuries are handled. The Laws says that the game must only be stopped for serious injuries. Serious injuries are very rare yet teams expect the referee to stop immediately every time a player is 'down'. So when he doesn't he is berated and when he does he is also berated