Question Number: 32575

Law 5 - The Referee 7/6/2018

RE: Recreational Adult

PeterBabbage of Hjorring , Denmark asks...

In a recent World Cup match ( I cant recall which one for the moment) a throw in was taken by the attacking side, another ball was about to come onto the field but an assistant stopped it. The attacker ran on and put the ball in the net. The goal was disallowed. Whilst maybe that was in the spirit of the game I see no reason in law why it was not a goal.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Peter
It was in the England v Colombia game and the referee was Mark Geiger.
In Extra Time a throw in was awarded to England. The original ball made its way back on to the field of play and Young of England got another match ball to take the TI. The ball was kicked out over the sideline by the England goalkeeper and a ball boy went to throw it to Maguire of England who had gone to the touchline to retrieve the ball.
As that happened the assistant referee who was watching all this stopped the second ball with his hand entering the FOP. He suddenly realised that Young had now at that instant taken the TI and then had to sprint to get back into position. Maguire motioned to the referee that the restart was taken while he and the assistant were not ready which Referee Geiger agreed with and stopped play with a whistle yet Colombia kept playing. So the goal could not be awarded. The referee was then seen to explain to the Colombian captain Falcao that there was two balls involved which he seemed to accept.
I think technically the second ball was not on the FOP so play could have continued. I believe that the fact that the AR got involved with the extra ball swayed the decision to stop as clearly he was not ready and got involved close to Maguire. I also think that had the AR not stopped the ball with his hand there would certainly have been two balls on the field yet difficult to say if that was then interference with play?
Anyway it was one of the two reason Colombia were unhappy with the referee with the other being the penalty award.
It points to the possible difficulty with the multi ball system and also had the AR not got involved I think play might have continued? It was silly by Young to take the TI as I do not know what he was at as he could not have looked to see where Maguire was at?
At this level the AR should not have been watching behind him or getting involved with retrieval of balls or otherwise. I have seen one or two situations of ARs playing balls to players and this is another example. ARs should focus on the FOP and avoid the ball at this level.

.