Question Number: 35829

High School 12/5/2024

RE: High School

Robert J Saccoia of Rancho Cucamonga, CA United States asks...

When the Ref does not know the number of a player who committed a yellow card foul
And no one will admit to it who should get the card, captain, coach or no one?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Robert
Thanks for the question.

Poor mechanics has placed the referee in a weak position. The offender will know that the referee is unsure of identity and the opponents may be expecting a card. Not a place a referee wants to be in.

I have seen this in situations where a referee has played advantage, hoping to come back to caution the offender and then lost focus on the number of the player.
I saw one such situation recently and I asked the referee after the game why he did not go back to caution the offender for a blatant offence and he admitted that he lost focus on the player and then he could not identify the player at the next stoppage. He just had to accept his mechanics error rather than getting into detective mode.

NFHS allows for a coach to be cautioned for team or bench misconduct that cannot be attributed to a specific player. My experience is that a coach may genuinely not be able to identify the offender and then it may get into a *Whodunnit* situation with public questions being shouted around.

In FIFA games where an offence is committed by someone from the technical area (substitute, substituted player, sent-off player or team official) and the offender cannot be identified, the senior team coach present in the technical area will receive the sanction. It is expected that a playing offence should be identified as part of play and that if that is not possible no one is sanctioned.

It is also expected as mentioned where it is not possible to say identify someone in the technical area group who committed an offence such as dissent to ask for the player to be identified by the senior coach. A referee would not be expected to identify a shouter from a group in the technical area so that request is not unexpected.

However a referee would be expected to identify a player who committed a yellow card offence on the field of play as part of play. When that does not happen it brings into question the match officials competences in the opinion of participants.

My advice much like the situation I saw recently is that if the referee team cannot identify the offender to let it slide and resolve to ensure it does not happen again.
In the past as a lone official I have had situations happen behind my back where it was not possible to identify an offender or for that matter what truly happened. I just had to accept the circumstances and make a mental note of possible offenders and to be wary of retribution from that point on.

I recall one game in an injury situation where a player was knocked to the ground behind my back in a group of players. Clearly no one was going to own up so I just told the captains I had a sense of what happened which was behind my back as a lone official and I was adopting zero tolerance from that point on. A short while later the suspected offender was substituted!
I did apologise to the coach of offended against team after the game when he approached me complaining about no sanction. I told him that if I saw what he described I would have no hesitation in dismissing a player. I told him I could not write a report on something I did not see. He accepted that apology as a lone official with it happening behind my back. It taught me a valuable lesson early in my referee career about positioning at such situations.

Your situation should also teach a valuable lesson in player identification and to focus on offenders with some reminder such as to say the number of the player or some other identification assistance that presents.
It also helps to glance back at situations to see if anything out of turn is happening such as players squaring up etc. Experience will help us identify potential trouble so a referee can glance back, move differently, position differently to key an eye on potential problems and identify offenders.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Robert,
my colleague Ref McHugh has made some excellent points.
There are times when a single official is at the mercy of where he was, what he knows, what he saw, when (something) occurred! Either far away or out of sight

There is also the scrum of players like in the technical area or an altercation on or off the FOP where opposing players are intermingled and fighting and the ability to clearly see who did what to who is hampered.

Then if we applied advantage and were supposed to caution later at the next stoppage, there is confusion as the time delay can make us unsure who it was even if we saw it.

Yes concentration and position play a part and you can simply ask who did that? You can not go just with what the opposing team/players say but not all players are deceptive. You can also ignore it knowing there could be trouble later but the "Cannot call what you do not see" is a familiar ploy they should understand!

I sent off a player who punched another. Never saw the blow but the skinned knuckles and him standing over the other was enough for me. Plus it was likely the game would be a dog fight if I did not! So sometimes we just do what we KNOW needs to be done and live with it! With VAR and the support they have at the elite level they should sort it quickly. Grassroots we just look the coach in the eye and give it our best!

One thing I found helpful in cases where I was applying advantage. I tried very hard to get the player's number who was going to get booked announced out loud for all to hear especially my ARS or 4th, something to the effect (#15 BLUE you are in the BOOK!!!) or (15 blue we will chat later!) It also let the TEAMS and coaching staff you saw, you are dealing with, so relax and chill, lets just play. Then the number was imprinted on all so to speak.
Cheers