Question Number: 33548

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 7/30/2019

RE: Recreation Adult

Luis Preciado of Oxnard, CA USA asks...

Hello, i was playing in a game and a player got sent off with a red. theres only one ref so its kinda hard for him to see everything. the team that got a ted card sneaked in an extra player. the ref didnt notice. our team noticed so we told the ref. then the just stopped the game and told the team a player had to be out. the player who stepped in quickly got out and tried not to be noticed. the ref didnt really do anything. but that is my question. is there some kind of disqualification for doing that or does nothing really happen and the player just gets out?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Luis
This should not have happened and there are sanctions for doing this
First off the *extra* player should have been identified and shown a yellow card. I would also be having words with the coach and if his explanation of how it happened was not very convincing I would also be showing him a yellow card. Substitutes rarely if ever make decisions to enter the field of play as a player on their own, without permission from the coach.
The next point is that a goal cannot be allowed where there is an extra player on the field. So if say a goal was scored and the scoring team had an extra player on the field at that time the goal is disallowed and the restart is free kick to the defending team.
If play has already restarted then obviously the referee cannot go back to change a decision so he has to report the matter in his match report. The competition organisers can sanction the team for the offence depending on the circumstances.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Luis,
Did the referee actually identify the extra player and confirm that there was an extra player on the field? Or did the extra player step away before the ref was able to confirm it?
The extra player should have been shown a yellow card - and as Ref McHugh stated, a goal may be disallowed under some situations.
If it didn't have any clear impact on the game like that then there's not normally no further sanction for the team - so a simply yellow card is all the player would normally receive. If, however, the extra player had denied your team a goal or obvious goalscoring opportunity, they would be sent off.
Your team did the right thing in alerting the referee to the presence of the extra player.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Luis,
There definitely is 'some kind of [sanction] for doing that.' Under the law, this is a mandatory yellow card.

Obviously, the referee has not given permission for the extra player to come onto the field and they must immediately leave the field. In addition, the law states that:

''A substitute or substituted player is cautioned if guilty of [...] entering or re-entering the field of play without the referee's permission''

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Luis,
so if a player was shown a red card & sent off that team should be down a player. Thus 11 versus 10 is the new normal. If the 10 man team has an EXTRA player to be at 11 versus 11 , this is illegal and said player must be cautioned and removed. If a goal was scored with this extra player on the FOP it would not count ONLY if he was in fact identified as being on the FOP at the time. Any goal scored by the team that was permitted 11 players would still count no matter what, given they had done nothing illegal. So did referee see this guy get on or off and was the coach pulling a fast one? That will be a matter of opinion for the match referee. The referee puts in his match report his factual account of this incident & any further sanctions is a decision for a disciplinary committee
Cheers