Question Number: 27207

Law 5 - The Referee 2/27/2013

RE: Competitive Adult

John Atkinson of London, United Kingdom asks...

I have a question about advantage.

An attacker has the ball about 25 yards from the goal line in the centre of the pitch and is fouled but the ball rolls to a team mate out wide (3 yards from the touchline), 18 yards from the goal line.

The referee calls out 'advantage' but the player with the ball is closely marked and as he tries to put the ball into the penalty area, the defender blocks his cross.

Would you pull the play back to the original foul as the advantage was not realised as they were not able to put the ball into the penalty area and it wasn't their fault that the defender blocked it i.e. wasn't a technical error on their part.

One more question - what does 'trifling' mean?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi John
It would appear that there was no advantage or it did not materialise as anticipated and therefore the referee would be entitled to go back to the originial foul and award the direct free kick.
There will be times when the team with advantage makes an error and squanders the clear advantage. Play is not brought back for that type of situation.
Trifling means that there is a foul but it is not sufficient to stop play as it has little or no effect on play

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

The referee must decide what the advantage was to be and if it occurred. In this case the advantage would be the teammate not only receiving the ball but also either moving with the ball towards the goal or passion/shooting the ball closer to the goal. Neither happened within a few seconds so bring it back to the point of the foul and award a free kick.
Trifling means that technically a breach of the Laws has occurred but it had no impact on the game so the referee does not call it.
The easiest to understand example would be the keeper carrying the ball with his hands a few inches over the penalty area boundary line before releasing it for a punt when there are no opponents nearby. No real advantage was gained so why punish it?