Question Number: 28558

Kicks From The Penalty mark 6/27/2014

RE: Competitive Adult

Ed of Redmond, Washignton USA asks...

Just the facts: In an adult playoff game where league instructions are to go directly to KFTPM with a tie at the end of regulation, one of the teams ignores the referee crew to stay on the pitch and leaves the field with the exception of 6 players, one being the keeper. Lots of warnings to stay and get substitutions completed during the match. The referee does not elect to caution the 5 field players and starts the kick process. The kicks are 6-5 with the team who left the field wanting to now send on additional players. The referee refuses to allow them to return. The sixth kicker is the keeper who misses. Team manager cries foul!

Question - Does the manager have any grounds for his complaint? Disregard the cautions that should be given.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

At the kicks phase, those eligible to kick are those who were players on the field when the match ended and those who were players off the field with the permission of the referee (e.g., someone being treated for an injury). Here, when the match ended, there were 11 players on the field, so all were eligible to kick.

The best mechanic is for the assistant referee to run to the technical area when the match ends to keep any of the substitutes off the field and all of the players on the field to make sure that no one who is ineligible to kick participates. If the referee blows the whistle once (not thrice), the players will stop - thinking it is a foul - and this gives the AR time to move into a better position to control the benches. As long as the AR can separate players from subs, it is clear who is eligible to kick even when the teams do not follow the correct procedure. The second best mechanic is for the AR to know (or note) the numbers of the substitutes (there usually are only a few of them in uniform) at the end of the match.

When the players left the field, the referee had a problem. How does the referee know who is eligible to take the kick? If all of the subs were wearing pinnies (or a team has no subs), it is fairly easy. Get the players back in the center circle and take the kicks.

But, if the referee doesn't know who was a player when the match ended, then a problem has been created that only the league can decide. The laws don't address how to fix the situation.

My opinion is that the referee choose a poor solution. I would have allowed the team to send 11 players to the center circle to take the kicks, but would have told them that I would include in the match report that 5 left and it is possible that someone who is ineligible to kick participated. The league would then decide (if that team won the kicks phase) whether to allow a protest by the other team. I would also note that if the six players who I knew were eligible took the first six kicks, I would also note that and it would probably help their chances if the other team lodged a protest. I would not have refused to permit the five to return, however.

The problems that I see with the referee's solution is the team had 11 eligible kickers when the match ended. The laws permit the referee to caution the five player who left the field without permission, but not to send them off. Even assuming that one team only had 6 players eligible to take the kick, however, the other team should have been required to reduce their numbers so that each team had the same number of eligible kickers at the time of the first kick.

That said, the team that created the problem by ignoring the referee and leaving the field is hardly is a position to make the league feel that they should get another chance at penalty kicks. The problem remains: how does the league know who is eligible to take the kicks?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Ed
Managing Kicks from the Penalty Mark can prove difficult at times. Had the situation been properly organised say with bibs for substitutes / substituted players the identification challenge may not arise. The referee could then be more relaxed about players' location in the period between the final whistle and the start of the kicks.
Now in this situation I would have advised the referee to make the best effort to ensure that only the players on the field of play at the end of regulation time were eligible to take a kick. The referee can also depend on the opponents to 'cry foul' if that was not the case.
I feel that by the approach taken the referee has created a problem for himself. By following that approach quite a number of laws were not strictly followed and therefore open to protest. Those include not equating the numbers on the field of play before KFTPM, not allowing players who were eligible to kick to participate, and not dealing with the disciplinary matters.
The wise choice in the circumstance was to accept the leaving of the 6 players for what ever reason and to deal with any complaint as it arose. Many times teams self regulate based on the opponents' expectation and knowledge. There may not have been a problem had it been ignored. If there was, which could only be that an ineligible player was nominated to take a kick, then that could have been dealt with by ascertaining the facts or if that was not possible then reporting it to the competition authority.