Question Number: 33178

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 3/23/2019

RE: College

Christopher Fernandes of Kuwait, Kuwait Kuwait asks...

This question is a follow up to question 21757

A player is shown a Yellow card for kicking the ball with anger after the whistle was blown for a foul committed. The same player rushes on the referee and abuses him with a really dirty bad word standing in front of the referees face. What should the referee had done? shown the player the red card directly or given him the second Yellow followed by red

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Christopher.

As 2 offences were commited, the by-the-book response is that the referee should have shown the YC for kicking the ball away, and the RC for the Offensive/Insulting and/or ABUSive language and/or Gestures. If the 2nd offence warranted a straight red card, some referees may not bother with the initial caution, but strictly speaking it's incorrect (and it's important to get these things right - it affects things like suspensions for accumulation of cards).

If both were simply yellow card offences, the referee needs to show both yellow cards.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Chris,
Dissent or the act of USB for time wasting in kicking the ball away is a caution thus show a yellow card. ABUSE however, is a DIRECT red card send off. Based on your description. After the player in question is shown the yellow card for the 1st silly thing then a direct red card is shown for the abuse, it is NOT a 2nd caution for USB so the yellow card is NOT shown twice. The misconduct report would reflect that distinction.
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Christopher
There are two separate misconduct situations here
The first one is a caution which can be for dissent or delaying the restart depending on the action of the player. In your description it reads like dissent. We know situations where the player kicks the ball away to prevent a quick restart. That is delaying the restart which is a caution.
The second situation is a red card offence for using offensive, insulting and abusive language.
Some referees depending on the timing may quickly issue the first yellow card and then the player starts his tirade which results in a straight red card. If on the other hand the action of the kicking the ball away and the tirade all happen in immediate proximity the referee may just go with a straight red card for both actions which he can deem connected and report what happened.
There can also be situations of a caution for delaying the restart by kicking the ball away followed by a second caution for dissent followed by a red card for two cautions.