Question Number: 29452

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 5/29/2015

RE: Competitive Adult

Nicholas Broderick of Campbell, California USA asks...

A player is dribbling towards the opponents goal from 25 yards out and is being tracked by a single opponent. There are no other opponents between the player and goal other than the goalkeeper. The player is tripped unfairly by the opponent. The player manages to recover from the trip and keep possession of the ball, but now there is another opponent - two total counting the goalkeeper - between the player and the goal.

Should the referee apply advantage here despite the fact that the opponent is guilty of DOGSO and should be sent off? Can the referee apply advantage but then send off the player at the next stoppage, since what materialized after the foul, though better than a free kick, was not an obvious goal-scoring opportunity?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Nicholas,
the definition of advantage is in of itself the reason to allow play to continue is the ...POSSIBILITY... something GOOD will occur. That something ...MUST..by definition be BETTER than the free kick stoppage opportunity being passed up and in your case suspending the SEND off criteria to await a ...RESULT... that satisfies the actual concept of advantage.

I notice your claim that what materialized ...AFTER...was better than a scoring opportunity from 25 yards out against a team down to ten players? THAT is what the advantage bar was raised to, so what is a true advantage is most likely an actual goal or allow the shot to see if it goes in. If not then award the original foul and apply the send off.
It is likely given the change of pace, interfering new defenders and the angle is not ...better... than a one on one with the keeper that was there moments ago before the foul and denial of the obvious scoring opportunity.


The break you are allowing the defence IF a goal WAS scored there is no send off. The problem is if you ...CLAIM.. advantage ...IS... realized then the opportunity is not denied and the send off is not applicable. Nor can you come back to the spot of the foul Only if it was VC or SFP would the red card/send off criteria hold up! That card would then be shown at the next stoppage.

In THESE situations in and around the penalty area I tend to ...DELAY.. the whistle and await the outcome rather than go into showing or saying anything. Even if you do shout out, Advantage!, and arm sweep the signal you are not restricted from bringing the ball back to the spot of the foul and showing the red card unless you shout out PLAY ON! which says I have analyzed what occurred and satisfied with what I have seen was a TRUE advantage thus we are not stopping play. Until that decision...IS... required, play it cagey, keep the options open.
While it is true we do NOT recommend awarding two bites of the apple this was more of a bite then wait to see if it is swallowed/
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Nicholas
Never an easy call for the referee to make. When the referee plays advantage and it is not realised then he brings the play back to the original foul. The referee then has to re-create the situation in his mind to decide if all the conditions of denying a goal scoring opportunity did exist at the time of the foul and how much the foul changed the circumstances. The easy ones are Direction which was towards goal, Distance from goal which was 25 yards, Distance of the attacker from the ball which was a dribble and the difficult one is the number of Defenders. If there was no foul would the 2nd defender have made it back to challenge for the ball before the opportunity. A recovering stumble may suggest that the defender was close and how close is a matter of opinion. At 25 yards there is some ways to go before the opportunity may be taken. I have seen these go either way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4bHkb3JlRg
In this clip Referee Moss determined that the foul by Black 4 did in fact deny a goal scoring opportunity and dismissed the player. However the dismissal was later overturned on appeal. Would Black 37 have got a challenge in before the goal scoring opportunity had there not been a foul or if advantage could have been played what was the likely outcome without the foul? Obviously the FA Disciplinary panel felt that a clear OGSO was not denied.
Personally I have sympathy for the referee here. I think there was a good chance of a clear shot on goal from six yards and the defender prevented that with the foul. I can also see that there was an element of doubt in the dismissal and therein lies the difficulty.
Move the foul 25 yards out with the attacking player stumbling and keeps going there is every chance that the 2nd defender would have got a challenge in to prevent the OGSO without the foul.

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

See Question: 29455

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