Question Number: 21604

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 6/30/2009

RE: Competive Adult

AC of washington, dc US asks...

A player on my team executed an arguably dangerous slide tackle. An opposing player was red carded for resultant fighting. Our player was also red carded 'for the original tackle'. Our player then knocked the little notebook out of the ref's hand in disgust as he stormed off the field.
At that point the ref called (ended) the game, claiming the tip of his finger had been 'assaulted' and got out his phone to call the cops.
2 questions.
1)What has to occur for a ref to stop a game?
2) How should the result get recorded (it was tied in the '60th minute)?
Thanks

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

The referee is empowered to suspended the match whenever there is any concern for the referees' personal safety.

Not having been present, I cannot say whether another referee might have been able to manage the situation without suspending the match. The aggressive conduct by your player, however, is unacceptable everywhere.

Abuse towards sports officials is a very serious topic, and most leagues take formal action on any report of physical contact or threats against the match referee. In some states, the police or prosecuting authorities may also investigate any report of an assault on a sports official.

The US Soccer Federation has addressed both referee assault and referee abuse: Assault includes: hitting, kicking, spitting on, grabbing or bodily running into a referee; head butting; or throwing any object at a referee that could inflict injury; damaging the referee¹s uniform or personal property, i.e. car, equipment, etc. Referee abuse includes verbal statements or physical acts not resulting in bodily contact which imply or threatens physical harm to a referee or the referee¹s property.

What happens about the match is entirely up to the league's disciplinary committee. Based on the league's rules, they could consider the match tied, order it replayed, declare that one or both team forfeits, or decide something else is appropriate. That is up to the league.

If the league is affiliated with the US Soccer Federation, the appropriate State Association also will conduct a hearing on the appropriate discipline for the player on any report of referee assault or referee abuse.


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Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

whenever the referee feels his or the players safety is at risk, he may stop the game.

You can bet the report is going to be very detailed including referee assault and the player commiting the assault likely will result in a long ban from play not the usual single game.

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Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Law 5 specifically allows for the referee to abandon the match for an infringement of the laws. This is quite a broad scope, but this means that the referee is perfectly within his rights to abandon the match in such an incident.

Generally speaking, any physical or aggressive act against the referee can be considered an assault on the referee.

The referee should be sacrosanct; you do not touch the referee in this fashion. Doing so is an extremely serious offence - and once the sanctity of the referee has been violated in this fashion, what guarantees does the referee have that there won't be further attacks?

None whatsoever - which is why often something like taking a card or notebook out of a referee's hand is sufficient for the referee to consider his safety compromised, thus abandoning the match.

Generally referees are advised to involve the police in any such case.

As to how the result will get recorded, differently leagues may have different policies on abandoned matches - and often these policies will allow the league to make a decision on a case-by-case basis.

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Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

The Laws of the Game in Law 5 give the referee the power to stop, suspend or abandon the match, at his discretion, for any infringements of the Laws (or because of outside interference of any kind). Assaulting or abusing the referee committed by a player is grounds for terminating the game, as that is an infringement of the Law.

Law 5 also states the decisions of the referee regarding facts connected with play are final. If the referee decided the behavior of the player was an assault upon the dignity and safety of his person, then that is a fact, and is certainly appropriate grounds to terminate the game.

The USSF publication, Advice to Referees, tells us that a game is terminated for reasons of safety, for serious infringements of the Laws or because of outside interference. The lack of sufficient players to start or finish the match, or problems with the field or the safety of its equipment are grounds to abandon the match.

The difference, at least for most competitions, is a game that is terminated is not replayed and stands as played at the time of the termination - subject of course to the final decision of the competition authority. A game that is abandoned is normally replayed, although again that is determined by the rules of the competition authority.

So, without knowing what the competition rules for your league say, we cannot predict with any certainty what will be the outcome recorded for the match.

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