Question Number: 34304

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 8/17/2021

RE: Pro Adult

Crebs Crem of Zagreb, Croatia asks...

This question is a follow up to question 34295

Hello again,

I wish to ask a follow up question.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGS4vJVmE8M
In this position, after Rooney was sent-off with the help of VAR, the corner-kick was retaken (as far as I understood from the body language of the referee). Was it the correct restart decision?

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Crebs,
Thanks for your question.
It's a good question too - because if it isn't a retaken corner, then it's a penalty kick.
Free kicks (including penalty kicks) can only be awarded if the offence occurs while the ball is in play. Anything that happens while the ball is out of play doesn't change the restart.
So, if the elbow occurred before the ball was kicked, a retake is correct.

It's impossible for us to tell - we either have a zoomed out view showing when the corner was taken, but difficult to see the exact moment of impact - or the zoomed in-view showing the impact, but can't see the corner.

VAR is able to play multiple camera angles simultaneously. So, they can have both wide and tight footage playing at the same time - that means they're able to tell if 2 different events, captured on 2 different cameras, happen in a particular order or at the same time. I don't know if any multi-angle view was shown to the TV audience, but at this point all we can do is recognise that the VAR has technology putting them in a much better position to determine the timing.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Crebs,
I agree with my colleague ref Wright - I can't tell from the footage (despite watching it several times) whether the elbow happens before the corner kick is taken or not. The referee and VAR apparently decided that it was before the kick was taken because as my colleague once again rightly points out, if it had happened after the kick then it would have to have been a penalty.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Crebs
We know that Wayne Rooney was sent off for violent conduct for using his elbow on the head of an opponent.

As to the restart we have to assume that VAR cameras showed that the contact happened before the corner kick was taken hence the retake. From what we see it is difficult to be sure so we have to accept that VAR had a view that showed the contact BEFORE the kick. If it was after then it was a penalty kick.

At grassroots I think most referees may be going with a penalty kick as it will probably look like it happened while the ball was in flight with the player going down with the ball not far away. In many ways the view we saw with the ball going into the goal area.

Without technology it could be missed as happened in real time and unseen violent conduct has caused many problems for referees.

Anyway for me it would have to be the correct decision and I have to accept the VAR outcome on the restart. That restart decision would be scrutinised in the match review on video so the referee crew including VAR would have to show and explain the decision including the restart.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 34310