Question Number: 29878

Law 1- The Field 11/1/2015

RE: College

damion of port Antonio , portland jamaica asks...

If a home team fails to provide seating or a technical area what would be the ruling

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Damion,
That would be entirely dependant on the ROC (rules of the competition) The referee can walk the field to ensure it is laid out correctly but this lies outside his jurisdiction unless it is covered in the bylaws. I have set up a coned area of flat cones to delineate the area where I wanted the teams to be in lieu of proper lines to achieve better substitutions, give the coaches the area of their responsibility to know where he could go legally and to separate fans and teams from intermingling on the touchlines,
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Damion
In the absence of a defined technical area the referee has a number of options. He could ignore it and allow the teams to *camp* close to the touch line around half way as they see fit. That happens quite a bit at Underage games. Another option is to ask the home team to mark out an area in line with the technical area guidelines. Like Referee Dawson I have asked clubs to cone off areas and ask the team to remain inside those during the game.
The purpose of the technical areas is to bring order such as restricting movement of coaches and players. If teams can behave in a responsible manner when no area is defined then there is no issue for the referee. The challenge is to know when that is likely to happen.