Question Number: 35710

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 9/19/2024

Petr of Prague, Czech Republic Czech Republic asks...

Hello,

one more situation please.

Situation:

The goalkeeper holds the ball in play in his own penalty area. He starts yelling at the referee. Can the referee award a yellow or red card after the stoppage? Or must he strictly blow the whistle for an indirect free kick in the penalty area?

Referees seem to prefer to avoid it. How do you assess it?

Thank you very much!

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Petr,
if this is a restart where the keeper must take a goal or free kick and it is a delay or a USB action that CAN NOT be ignored as it is too blatantly provocative, personal & public then a caution show a yellow card is plausible but the restart remains as it was.

No referee enjoys awarding an unearned scoring opportunity just because the keeper or player has a momentary volatile emotional outbreak.

But to be clear, if this is active play, a keeper holding onto the ball in his PA arguing with an official as their 6 seconds of possession are being utilized is not a Mensa IQ moment, is it?

If this is a pattern of behaviour it is even less smart as the tolerance level of what dissent a referee will allow diminishes if our irritation is constantly stoked by USB behaviour .

"GET ON with it!" or ???

If the action DOES 100% merit a caution show a yellow card or send off, show a red card, reduce a the team by a player that must occur now! You award the INDFK after you show the card for the misconduct . You can not wait until the next stoppage as there was no advantage to the opposition by NOT awarding the free kick gift!

We likely try to avoid it as in any set of circumstances be they good or bad.
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Petr
If the ball is out of play the restart does not change even if there is a caution or a dismissal for dissent, delaying the restart or using offensive, insulting and abusive language. We see that quite often with goalkeepers being tardy on goal kicks or dissenting a decision where the ball has gone out of play. Card shown and the restart does not change.

Now if the ball is in play a referee is perfectly entitled to stop play for dissent etc, sanction the player with a caution or a dismissal and restart with an indirect free kick from the location of the offence which is the answer to your question. Remember that an IDFK restart for a verbal offence has to have a card. No card no IDFK.

Many referees do not like to take the route of a dissent card during play and wait until the next stoppage. Many times there may be an advantage to the opponents so play continues. There is no advantage to the opponents in doing that in your example of the goalkeeper yet many referees default to the *advantage* approach and wait until the next stoppage before taking action or maybe even no action!

I watched a referee recently getting shouted at for a no penalty decision and he waited until the ball was out of play before cautioning the offender even though the IDFK was a better option.
He is not alone in that as I recall the infamous Chelsea v Barcelona ECL game in 2009 where players were running and shouting in the face of the referee during play.
Many referees feel that by waiting for the next stoppage that the incident has somewhat passed and it is less contentious to not have to award the IDFK as well due to stopping the game.

With the introduction of *Only the Captain* guidelines dissent is likely to be punished more often.
https://downloads.theifab.com/downloads/only-the-captain-can-approach-the-referee-guidelines-for-competitions

We will see how that develops in the coming months. To date I see players picking up silly cautions for questioning referees. Old habits die hard though as in past players thought nothing of mobbing the referee.
Somewhat disappointed that in the Monaco v Barcelona sending off incident that at least one Barca player should have been cautioned for the mobbing and dissent of the decision. The referee did try to pull the Barca captain to the side to try to deal with it. The referee was still in *old* mode as he dealt with it as before.