Question Number: 33811

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 12/19/2019

RE: Youth and adult not professional Adult

R Jef Harding of Alexander, NC United States asks...

When a player says; "I have it." behind an opponent in an effort to Deceive. I have given a yellow card for UB, several times. Recently the player asked; " where in the Laws is that?" I said I will check but you are in my book for Unsporting Behavior. Where woo point best to answer the question. ?

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Jef,

My colleague ref McHugh has given 'chapter and verse' for the location in the law for this in his answer below. He is also right that the situation you outline can illustrate one of the more persistent myths of the game, where players (and some referees, unfortunately) believe that you can award an indirect free kick offence, with no caution necessary, if a player calls for the ball and does not 'put a name on it.'

In fact, as you already appear to know, whether the player calls a name or not is immaterial - it's only an offence if a player shouts something that causes a distraction to an opponent and if you're going to penalise this, you have to caution the player.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Jef
Current Laws of the Game page 109 list of unsporting behaviour
*verbally distracts an opponent during play or at a restart*
Now the more common incorrect situation is where referees give an IDFK only for not using a name. I saw one recently where a player shouted to a team mate to Leave It and the referee deemed it an offence and awarded an IDFK!
Communication between players is not an offence and there has to be obvious USB before it should be called. Just becuase a name is not used does not mean it was done to verbally distract or deceive. I also find that players in general are not easily distracted by opponents.
If a player asked me I would tell him you cannot shout at an opponent to deceive him. He probably knows that anyway.