Question Number: 31379

Law 6 - The Other Match Oficials 3/21/2017

RE: Competitive Under 15

Sam Wake of East Fremantle, Western Australia Australia asks...

Why is this wrong?
Which of the following are the duties of an assistant referee as stated in this Law. Some of the following may be duties requested by the referee, however they are not stated in this Law.?

Advise the Referee of offenses that you have seen but the Referee couldnt see #
Inspect the field of play
Inspect the balls and players equipment
Make the final decision in all matters during the game
Assist the referee to control the match in accordance with the Laws of the Game #
Maintain a record of time, goals, misconduct, etc

I chose

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Sam
It is a technical question to demonstrate what functions can be carried out by an assistant referee. It also highlights those decisions that are the sole decision of the referee. While a referee might take advice from an AR on some or delegate to an AR or 4th official or ask for back up ultimately the decision rests with the referee.
For instance the referee is charged with maintaining a record of everything in the game yet he may ask an AR to also record those details for back up purposes in case the CR gets something wrong such as missing a caution.
These type of questions are asked so that it encourages the reader to look up Law 5 and 6.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Sam,
The 6 point list is simply a collection of official duties.

The main ones if we were to say it was an AR duty would the 1st and 5th decisions .
Advise the Referee of offenses that you have seen but the Referee couldn't see
Assist the referee to control the match in accordance with the Laws of the Game

The only point not a real AR possibility is point 4
Make the final decision in all matters during the game. That is the CR (center referee) NOT the AR responsibility .

The AR can be assigned any of the other duties by the CR as well as they accepting to share in the responsibility but ultimately the responsibility falls upon the CR
Inspect the field of play
Inspect the balls and players equipment
Maintain a record of time, goals, misconduct, etc

On the last pint #6
(There is a contentious portion that commands the AR MUST record and report any decision he has seen that was unseen by the referee and then tell the referee he is doing so which could be VC or SFP or reckless USB misconduct. The referee CAN act upon the information but IF he chose not to he would have to explain in the match report likely why he did not react to the AR information .



Law 6 The Other Match Officials
assist the referee with
offences and infringements when they have a clearer view than the referee and
they must submit a report to the appropriate authorities on any serious
misconduct or other incident that occurred out of the view of the referee and
the other match officials. They must advise the referee and other match
officials of any report being made.

They indicate when:
• the whole of the ball leaves the field of play and which team is entitled
to a corner kick, goal kick or throw-in
• a player in an offside position may be penalised
• a substitution is requested
• at penalty kicks, the goalkeeper moves off the goal line before the ball is
kicked and if the ball crosses the line; if additional assistant referees have
been appointed the assistant referee takes a position in line with the penalty
mark
The assistant referee's assistance also includes monitoring the substitution
procedure.
The assistant referee may enter the field of play to help control the 9.15m
(10 yards) distance
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Sam,
I'm not quite 100% sure what the question is supposed to be. Anyway, there is one item on the list that is not the duty of an AR - no. 4:

''Make the final decision in all matters during the game''

This is the sole prerogative of the referee.

The others are things that an AR either should do (1, 5 & 6) or might be asked to do by the referee (2 & 3).

For item 6 while the referee is the primary person responsible for these issues, the AR should also keep track of them just in case there is any question.