Question Number: 33579

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 8/16/2019

RE: Rec Adult

Russell of Sydney, Australia asks...

A friend described the following that had happened in his match. He is part of team Red.

Blue 8 was in possession of the ball, when Red 6 kicked Blue 8 in the leg while attempting to gain the ball. Referee calls (and apparently motions with arms) 'play-on', to which Blue 8 did.

Blue 8 progresses a handful of meters uncontested, and decides he would prefer a DFK, so stops and places his hand on the ball and said to the Ref, 'actually, I want a Free Kick'.

Referee awarded a DFK to team Blue.

Team Red protest and ask for a DFK due to DH, siting that 'play-On' is not 'Advantage' and that 'Play-On' is effectively saying 'no foul', whereas, 'playing advantage' is recognising a foul.

Either way, the player of team Blue took it upon themselves to stop play by handing the ball - not the ref calling it back to the (supposed) foul.

What should have been the call?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Russell
It is up to the referee to decide based on the situation. Timing is critical to the call.
I would say that in essence advantage was not available in the first place so the offence should have been called. It is probably also the best call to go back to the foul as if say the player does not 'handle' the ball then it probably gets brought back anyway. If it does not get brought back it will attract howls of *where is the advantage ref*
Now having said all that the referee would be perfectly entitled to call the deliberate handling if he is of the opinion that advantage was there and it was fully realized.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Russell,
It's worth pointing out to our international audience, that in Australia, we're taught to 'wait and see' - to not signal and call advantage until AFTER we're confident the advantage has materialised.

For instance, if a player has been fouled, is immediately challenged but if he wins that challenge his team has a great attack, we might hold off on a few moments. Some regions will call advantage during this 'consideration' period - in Australia, we won't until we know they've got the advantage. In the meantime, we use words like 'I've seen it', 'keep going' etc.

Following from that, we're also taught here that once you call and signal advantage, you cannot go back. Again - this doesn't apply to all regions; it's just how we do it here.

So, that makes this one simple. The ref has called advantage. Therefore it's a new phase of play, so now we have a foul by blue. Should be a FK to red.

One thing that's worth making clear: 'Play on' means the same thing as 'advantage'. In fact, the old phraseology that we used to be taught was 'Play on! Advantage!'.

Most referees shortened this to 'Play on!' while making the signal. So, 'Play on!' is the verbal signal for advantage.

Often referees mistakenly say 'play on' when they really mean no foul - but because this is a phrase that means advantage, referees should be careful to NOT use it in other situations. 'Keep playing' would be fine in a non-foul situation.

If the advantage signal hadn't yet been given, then it's a little more complex - what we have is a foul by one team, followed by a foul by the second.

If you were to give Blue the FK, then basically you're only giving them the FK because they handled the ball. I think there's ambiguity in what to do here - but I'm really not comfortable with that and I'd still be giving red the FK.

It's a bit like when players just stop because they want the FK. If the opponents kick the ball away immediately, fine, you get the FK. But if you have the ball near you and I can see you have a clear opportunity, I'm going to call advantage - and if you choose to then stand there waving your arms at me, that's on you. Other referees may take a different approach.

But like I said - in Australia, once the signal is given, things get simpler.