Question Number: 30389

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 5/7/2016

RE: Competive Adult

Scott of WA, Western Australia Australia asks...

Team does not give ball back to other after ball was kicked out because of player injury. Is this classed as unsporting behavior?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Scott
There is no onus on a team to give the ball back to opponents when they kick the ball out of play. It is of no concern to the referee other then he has to heightened his attention towards difficulties / retribution by unhappy players.
Generally when a team kicks the ball out of play on an injury it is seen as Fair Play to return the ball. Sometimes though there can be unusual circumstances such as perhaps no injury or such a minor one that play did not need to stop. There also can be repeated time wasting which then causes a team to feel that fair play is not being exhibited by the opponents is they do not reciprocate.
On the net there have been many examples of such situations descending into brawls where a team abuses the fair play restart by not giving the ball back and scoring a goal.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bIMa0VPe3xY
Really nothing the referee could do in the circumstances under the Law

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Scott,
Short answer is that this is not a refereeing concern. Teams are not obligated under the laws to conduct a 'sporting restart' (one where the ball is returned to the other team) - moral obligation is another question, but is beyond the powers of the referee. While it may not be 'sporting' (in the sense that returning the ball is showing good sportsmanship), it doesn't fall into the category of 'unsporting behaviour' as per the laws. There's a difference between being unsporting, and not doing something sporting. Think of not returning the ball as a fairly neutral behaviour - they haven't exactly done anything wrong, they just haven't done the positive thing that was expected. Whereas USB is for severely negative actions.
The only time this becomes a refereeing concern is when the team has used deception - such as stating they would return the ball then not doing so. In such a case, the player would be cautioned. This is an extremely rare occurrence - I've never seen it happen myself.
The referee cannot force the players to return the ball. If this situation does rise, be very aware of hostile behaviour - the defending team may aggressively stop the ball carrier, or there may be words, retribution or confrontation on the deceiving player off-the-ball, so try to keep an eye on any potential confrontation and adjust your positioning so potential incidents aren't too far out of your field of view.
If tensions do start to rise here, then that's when the AR's need to be even more conscious of scanning the field for off-the-ball behaviour than other times (AR's and 4th officials should be vigilant in constantly scanning the field when not otherwise and immediately engaged).