Question Number: 30448

Law 6 - Assistant Referee 5/23/2016

RE: Rec Adult

Ron Leaf of Minneapolis, MN USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 30163

If the referee did not see the deflection off the attacker's foot and whistled for a violation when the goalkeeper handled the ball, how should the assistant referee communicate to the referee that a deflection occurred (assuming that headsets are not in use)?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Ron
The AR should use the agreed method on intervening as discussed in the pre match discussion. For me I advise ARs to attract my attention by shouting and beckoning me across. Some ask for a raised flag. When I am on the line I generally shout to the CR and ask him across to inform himself of what I have seen.
Other methods depend on the referee. Some like ARs to clearly step on to the FOP although that can be easily missed. Others use very good eye contact and perhaps subtle signals such as head shakes, nods, subtle agreed hand signals to communicate. That though requires good experience of working together as a team many times. Also one might expect the free kick decision to be challenged by the conceding team. The CR may at that time look for confirmation of the decision from the lead AR. If that is not forthcoming then the CR may approach looking for advice.
Finally I think that the signal beep flags are a good tool for referee crews. The beeps can be used to inform the CR perhaps with a say a head shake. The issue though is that on outlier calls the CR nay be unaware of what the AR is trying to communicate and therefore a word is the only solution.

Answer provided by Referee James Sowa

Ron,

Pregame, Pregame, Pregame! This should be discussed in the pregame. I typically tell my ARs if something like this occurs, put the flag straight up and get my attention. We will discuss and make sure we make the correct decision.

In this case (assuming no discussion in pregame), I would do the same. Flag straight up to indicate to the referee that I have information. When the referee comes over, I would share quietly that I am 100% confident there was a deflection and that the restart should be a dropped ball. After this point, it is up to the referee to accept and use the information or to discard and do his own thing.