Question Number: 30425

Law 5 - The Referee 5/18/2016

RE: Rec Under 9

Aly of Holliston, ma usa asks...

At one point a player had been pushed to the ground from behind, so I blew my whistle to make the call. No player or coach acknowleged the whistle. It took four blows of my whistle for play to stop and for them to acknowledge me. By this time Holliston had gained a breakaway, but because of my whistle they were forced to stop. The coaches were very upset with the call and thought that I should've let play continue because of advantage. I was looking out for the safety of the players,
Was I wrong, should I have let the play continue until the next stoppage?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

You blew the whistle, so play must stop. Maybe not all the players stopped for the whistle, but some of them might have. If let play continue, those players that had correctly stopped would be at a loss. Perhaps this is why there was a breakaway.

The time to evaluate any Advantage would be at the time you decided to blow the whistle the first time - when you evidently didn't see any Advantage.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Aly
Once you blew the whistle play had to stop. I am unsure from your post whether the players were so intent on continuing that they did not pay attention to the whistle or whether is just was not loud enough. One whistle should suffice.
Now advantage is a tool that referees have that allows the fouled against team to continue when it is advantageous to do so. Not sure advantage works well at Under 9 and safety while a factor is not key in playing it or not at that age group. Perhaps if the referee wanted to regain control of a game that was getting feisty it is not wise to play advantage except on those situations where it is a must. That is not a major consideration in U9s.
Now you ask whether you were wrong in your decision. Only you can answer that by looking at the post foul circumstances. If the fouled against team was clearly on the attack with superior numbers in a promising position and the foul was a minor one with the team happy to continue then why pull it back to the foul to allow the defending team to regroup? Generally I find that when a team is unhappy by being pulled back to the foul it probably is a poor decision unless there are other factors such as the need to send off a player, the manner of the challenge, the location of the foul, match control etc.
The best advice that I would give is that on fouls to give yourself a little thinking time with a delayed whistle. If it present to not call the foul then play the advantage. There can be times as well when the foul is a minor one with little or no impact so just allow play to continue with advantage.
I had one at the weekend where a player was fouled late in a minor way after a pass. The foul had no impact on play and the player looked at me for the foul to which my immediate reaction was *Advantage Play on* as I saw no need to stop the game for such a minor foul. It dealt with his moan and the team just got on with play.