Question Number: 28967

Law 5 - The Referee 11/11/2014

RE: Competitive Under 15

Aaron Speca of Virginia Beach, VA United States asks...

So we had a weird situation come up last weekend. One of the ARs had not arrived at the field in time for kickoff, so they used two referees on the field. The second AR arrived about halfway through the first half. The CR stopped play while play was ongoing and gave no indication of a foul or other reason for stoppage of play, in order to realign the officials into a standard CR with two ARs, one on each sideline. The play right before the restart was grey playing the ball forward and a red defender gaining uncontested possession of the ball just AFTER the whistle about ten yards on their side of midfield. The restart was a IFK for red from the center line (about where grey kicked it from), which red used to gain an advantage and set up a good scoring chance.

First, shouldn't the CR have waited for a natural stoppage of play to realign the officials?

Second, given the nature of how he did stop play, wouldn't the proper restart in those circumstances be a drop ball at the point where the ball was when the whistle was blown?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Aaron
First off the dual system is not legal in a FIFA / USSF game and it should not have been used. The AR should have only carried our AR duties and a linesman should have been found for the 2nd AR duties. The CR should then have briefed both on what he expected and I would advise both carrying out linesman duties only.
As regards stopping play the CR should have waited for a natural stoppage such as the ball out of play for whatever reason and then halting play until the AR was in place and ready to assume his duties. Play then restarts with whatever the reason the ball was out play such as a throw in, goal kick, free kick etc. As play was stopped to deal with the change the restart should have been a dropped ball from where the ball was when play was stopped.
I suspect that if the referees were using the dual officiating system the CR used a NFHS restart which is to give an IDFK to the team in possession of the ball which was Red. That was an error in law but so was dual officiating.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

If this was a match affiliated with US Soccer, the referee should have used one club line until the other AR arrived. The dual (two whistle) system is not allowed. Unless there was some unusual delay, it is more convenient for the players to swap out the club line at a normal stoppage in play. If play is stopped for the switch, however, it should restart with a dropped ball, not an IFK to the team in possession.

Like Ref McHugh, I wonder if the league was using NFHS high school rules. Those rules permit the use of the dual system of control and provide for an IFK to the team in possession (rather than a drop ball).