Question Number: 32601

Law 9 - The Ball in and out of Play 7/19/2018

RE: NA Adult

Ramadas MR of Cochin, Kerala India asks...

I came across a situation where referee blown whistle near penalty box in a futsal match for a foul/handball in favour of attacking team. Without stopping the play(running ball) attacking team scored goal in 1-2 secs after whistle. The goal should be allowed or not. I see 2 occasion in the tourney where the referee allowed the goal mention the advantage provided for foul committed.

My understanding was upon a whistle play should be stopped, and restarted from a freekick after disallowing the goal.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Ramada,
Your understanding is correct! Too early a whistle results in no goal and a restart for WHY the whistle sounded!

if the referee blew play down using a whistle, play is over, it can not be permitted to play advantage as play is no longer current. A referee playing advantage would signal advantage he would NOT blow the whistle. Now if the team with the free kick was to take it quickly right after the whistle it could look as if play had not stopped. All that is required is the ball is positioned correctly and not moving on the restart

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Ramadas
When the whistle sounds no further play is allowed so the goal has to be disallowed. Law 9 in the Futsal Laws tells us that the ball is out of play when play has been stopped by the referee which is the sounding of a whistle.
Now the question has been asked in respect of the regular game which has the same outcome of no goal and a probable red card
I suspect the referees have made up the decisions to suit the circumstances. If a goal or goal scoring opportunity was denied by the foul then the offender would be sent off. I suspect no conceding team is going to complain if the option is a penalty kick and a red card as opposed to awarding a goal and a possible caution when it is clear that a goal was *scored* and the probable outcome is likely to be a goal with the PK. Totally Incorrect in law yet it does happen at lower levels of the game.
Here is such a situation explained
https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/video/referees/videoid=746585.html?autoplay=true#latest

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Did the attacking team take a quick restart? If they're quick enough, it might look like play never stopped. As long as the ball is in reasonable proximity to the site of the foul, the kicking team doesn't have to wait and can take the restart.