Question Number: 30501

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 6/10/2016

RE: Competitive Adult

Mr Peter Kilgour of Ashburton, Canterbury New Zealand asks...

When challenging for a ball that is going towards your teammates as well as yourself are you allowed to call out mine ?

This is for all grades of football .

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Peter
There is a myth in the game that shouting for the ball to a team mate without the use of a name is an IDFK offence. There is no such offence. There is an unsporting behaviour caution for verbally distracting an opponent during play or at a restart. An example would be a player saying LEAVE IT to an opponent and the opponent obliges. That is USB, the player is cautioned and the restart is an IDFK.
Now unfortunately the myth of no name shouts is omnipresent in the game which means that many in the game including referees award an IDFK for this. It is wrong in Law yet it does not prevent it happening. So it could happen that an IDFK is incorrectly awarded for shouting MINE. The same shout of Peters Ball does not cause any issues. Indeed Peter could shout Joes Ball and that would be ignored whereas MY BALL or MINE may be questioned.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Peter,

Calling 'mine' or similar is not and has never been an offence - despite the common myth!
The only way it becomes an offence is if it's done in order to distract or deceive an opponent, in which case it's a yellow card with an indirect free kick restart.

Calling 'mine, 'I've got it' etc is fine - I suspect it stems from the education given to young players of 'put your name to the ball' and somehow it evolved into thinking it's a free kick. Unfortunately even some referees subscribe to the myth without realising there is no provision whatsoever for a free kick - except in the scenario I described above.