Question Number: 28500

Mechanics 6/14/2014

RE: Under 16

Sean Tyler of Wilmington, DE USA asks...

Center Referee waves down Flag of AR for offside, because ball is going through directly to keeper with no danger of collision. There is no dispute that the player was in fact offside. Center heading back to go up field for punt but AR has never put down the flag, and is standing there with the flag up. Keeper, as well as all other players appear to believe it is in fact offside by their actions, backing up for free kick etc. so keeper rolls ball out to spot for kick. Players are backing up for the indirect kick as the defender grabs the ball for kick placement. Center Blows whistle, (Note AR still has flag UP for spot of kick), and Center awards direct kick for other team outside of the 18. Game 1-0 at the time.
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What can be done to remedy this situation, (like enforce the original infraction) or is is the correct call to still award a direct kick?
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As always thanks for your help.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Sean,

First off, the direct free kick is the correct decision here. You can't 'enforce the original infraction' - because the attacker never got involved, there was never an offside violation; merely a player standing in an offside position. Players need to learn to play the whistle.

For the AR, this is the peril of an early flag. It's better to be late and correct than early and wrong - 'wait and see' should be his mantra. It also highlights the importance of eye contact with the referee - if the referee waved him down, why did he not see it? He should have been looking at the referee at this time. Most of the time the AR should have eye contact with the referee before making a decision - probably not as important with an offside, but eye contact should be as the flag goes up.

For the referee - was his wave down not clear enough? Also, the prematch instructions should cover what he wants in these situations where the ball is going through to the keeper. He should be checking the AR after the wave down, and if he can see it was missed, then wave down again, perhaps with a verbalisation: 'No thank you, keeper has the ball, keep playing'. That may also be beneficial when there's an incorrect flag that you can see the players have seen and are responding to - they won't see the referee's 'wave down', so verbalisation can help ensure the communication is clear to all players.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Sean
At an early age players are told to ''Play to the whistle''. The flag is only a signal by an AR to the referee that in his opinion there has been an offside or an offence. The referee does not have to accept the flag and play should continue until the referee stops play with a WHISTLE.
Now should this happen here? The answer is that if the CR and AR had the proper mechanics it would not arise. The referee would clearly signal to the AR that the flag should be dropped and to also 'inform' players that play is continuing either with advantage, if there was an infraction, or simply inform players loudly that play is continuing.
As to what can be done when it goes wrong my take is very little as there is no offside infraction and play should continue to the whistle. I have seen referees 'accept' the flag when he knows it is going pear shaped in many way to allow for the poor decision by the AR and also the poor decision by the defending team. That is incorrect in Law. It is however part of the game that players are alert as to what is happening and going on around them. I have seen referees overrule flags when they decided that there was no offence. In those instance players have also stopped playing and play continued with the flag dropped immediately which also causes problems.
Here is an example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2abds-p-57E&t=3m58s
Some Green players stop playing as they think it is offside due to the incorrectly raised flag. Clearly it was not offside so all the referee could do was allow play to continue which he did. Greens berated the AR for his 'flag' but it was an underage error by those players. Play to the whistle.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

If all 22 players acts as if the player is offside, the referee usually is unwise to insist that he wasn't.

The book answer is this is a handling foul. The better decision, IMO, by the referee is either to call the offside or stop play for 'another reason' and restart with a dropped ball to the defending team.

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

See Question: 28526