Question Number: 34359

Law 5 - The Referee 9/27/2021

RE: Rec, AYSO Under 19

Mourad Tighiouart of Los Angeles, CA United States asks...

This question is a follow up to question 34356

sorry about that, the tag I put probably triggered a flag, try this

https://vimeo.com/616515177

I think I overheard now the commentators mentioning prior altercations of Fornals (#8 West Ham) with the referee

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Mourad,
Thanks for the clip but I don't think anything in it really changes the previous responses. It still looks like a caution for SPA would be technically incorrect but if, as you say, the player had been previously spoken to by the referee then the caution could have been for committing persistent offences, which would be fine.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Mourad
Thanks for the video.
It does not change my original answer although from the throw in the referee does the defending team a favour by stopping the restart which was a more promising attack position in my opinion! The referee got fixated by the need to caution before the restart rather than looking at the situation and opining that the attacking team want to get on with play in a promising position so why prevent that?
The referee could have allowed play to continue with a stern word of admonishment for the pull back that in essence failed at the next stoppage after the throw in.

If a referee knows the Law and he was questioned by an observer as to why he did not caution he could have used the SPA advantage advice! I suspect referees have been told to caution for pull backs, shirts pulls of this nature.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Miurad,
we appreciate the extra effort to get us the video!
While the need to caution may well be conditional on other factors such as PI or perhaps a fixation on jersey pulls as required to be cauitioned? I watch in disbelief at time when good referees seem to be restricted or tainted through instructuions to crackdown on certan things without really looking at the overall match itself. Only the referee could clearly say why he did as he did. We can speculate he might have forgot given it was pretty routine in the past to show yellow and caution if there was a blatant foul off an anadvantage before the restart of play. Sometimes the newer instructions are not ingrained into the DNA quite yet.
Cheers