Question Number: 35886

Law 5 - The Referee 2/20/2025

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

Hello

I'm annoying, but I saw something again.

S: The team doesn't have a substitute available. The player is injured, sitting on the field and doesn't want to leave. Does the referee have the authority to order him to leave the field and not return? Let's say he's lying there for a long time (sits, stands up, sits again). God forbid he suddenly gets up and runs to the goal alone. :-) Have you ever had to deal with this?

Thank you very much!

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Petr,
whether you are annoying I will leave that for your significant other to decide lol your desire to understand the LOTG intrici's is commendable!
The LOTG cover MOST instances of what we might expect in a match.
Players unless they are shown the red card, whatever decisions they make up until that occurs are part of the match. A referee can use their powers to inform a player of what is required but if the player flaunts the referees' authority we have the power to show the appropriate cards based on their inappropriate actions. If that leads to a dismissal be it 2 cautions or a direct red card send off of the player then the match will not continue until that occurs. The referee records the incidents as part of the match report if forced to abandoned the match one could only wonder at the attitudes of those who cause such foolishness!

I recall a men's match where a player was supposed to be substituted but refused to leave. The coach & player and many of the the teammates were irritated & argued on the pitch but we restarted without the exchange occurring after warning them to get on with it or cautions for delaying the restart or USB actions would be applied. Only when the physical actions started up did we intervene as the players began fighting amongst themselves and the foul language created a need for control.
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Petr
There are different answers here depending on the level of the game.

At the highest level there are stretcher bearers present who along with the medical personnel will be requested by the referee to remove the injured player and restart the game.

At lower levels of the game it is not so easy with in many cases no medical personnel present and perhaps no stretcher.
I once had an incident where a player hurt his knee and he did not want to be moved and requested an ambulance. There was nothing anyone could do and we all stood around waiting for his removal. After some 5 minutes which is a long time in a game I advised his team that if the game was going to be held up indefinitely while waiting for an ambulance I would abandon the game as I was not waiting around plus player were cooling down with possible consequences.
Rather than allowing that to happen his team coaxed him to agree to be removed by lifting him as someone by now had procured an old stretcher. The player was removed and restarted with 5 minutes added on to the time lost.
I had another situation where a goalkeeper and an attacker had a coming together in the last few minutes of a game. The goalkeeper went to ground which somewhat surprised me and then would not communicate. I did not sense any serious injury or health risk. Anyway there was about 5 minutes left and the evening was closing in. It looked like a possible abandonment. The home team physio by this stage had came on and asked what was wrong and if he could assist. He went and got a stretcher and removed the player. I got the goalkeeper replaced and finished the game out. I saw the goalkeeper leaving the changing room as I left the field of play some 7 or 8 minutes later.

Now it would have been a different matter if the player stood up and sat down again. That would tell me that the player could be removed and it would be fair and reasonable to expect the player to move off the field with assistance.
In that case I would threaten abandoning the game and going home if the player was not removed. It would be up to the players team to decide what it wanted to do.

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

See Question: 35887