Question Number: 30423

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 5/17/2016

RE: N/A Other

Peter Grove of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire United Kingdom asks...

This question is a follow up to question 30421

With the greatest of respect, I think your panel have failed to address one salient point. We have no concrete evidence to disprove the claim that the referee crew dismissed the player simply for removing his shirt and that if so, it's possible this was a misapplication of the law regarding a player removing his shirt as part of a goal celebration.

There are other possibilities, as you mention but I think you should at least discuss the question at face value and speak to the possibility that events unfolded as described. It would certainly not be the first time that such an error has been made.

While it's quite common for spectators/supporters to make mistakes in coming to conclusions about why a referee chose to follow a particular course of action that doesn't mean we should automatically hold that the questioner is wrong here and assume that the player was cautioned for some other reason.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Peter
The question relates to a NFHS game which has its own unique set of rules not Laws which differ in some respects from FIFA. We know for certain the player was cautioned at a time when the ball was out of play (not a goal) and the player was dismissed at that stoppage which included a substitution. There was no potential of a goal celebration and some States have a unique shirt removal rule.
The questioner was a referee and posited that the caution was for shirt removal and that the AR overreacted by making *too big a deal of it* She sought opinion on this although it could also read on the protest by the coach/ team.
The opinions were given which included other plausible reasons for such a caution such as leaving the FOP without permission and excessive act (NFHS rule). These were posed as questions as to why a caution may have issued in such an incident and did not hold that the questioner was wrong in her assumption. I assumed that any referee would have to be correct in the issue of cautions to dismiss a player and to report that accordingly. It was also suggested that other ARs might have ignored such an incident .
The answers were given to assist the questioner and readers in their thinking about this. Perhaps we tend to look for the more plausible reasoning in these outlier situations. I have seen many cautions for leaving the FOP into the technical area. I have never seen a caution for shirt removal other than at a goal celebration.
Your follow up reminded me of a video that went viral a few years ago
Media coverage certainly said it was for removing a shirt on the field of play. That one certainly could not be leaving with without permission! Delaying the restart? I would like to have read that sending off report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MBcIJDa3ts
I also came across this article and most shirt removal cautions were for goal celebrations
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/27/footballers-sent-off-for-taking-their-shirts-off