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You-Call-It 14

Question...

A red player had been granted permission to leave the field of play to change a bloody jersey. The match is tense, and tied with 16 minutes left in the second half. An errant blue pass sends the ball toward touch on the referee?s side of the field. Unbeknownst to the referee and out of his view, an altercation occurs (a blue player has violently punched a red player as he ran by just inside the blue penalty area) spotted by the AR2 in his area of responsibility. AR2 then raises his flag!
The ball now passes over the touchline 10 yards from the midline into the referee?s area of control just moments after this punch occurred. AR1, on the substitution side, has raised a flag in the appropriate hand indicating red possession for a throw in. Since the ball is out of play, this flag is accepted by the referee as a throw-in signal. The referee signals to the red player who had just finished changing his bloody jersey, still outside the field of play, to grab the ball and throw it back onto the field to restart play immediately. The red player correctly throws it back into play. Now the referee notices the AR2 still has his flag raised ! The referee initially tries to wave him down. The match continues briefly when the referee realizes the AR1 is now pointing across the field to indicate AR2's flag is raised. Your match, your decision, your reputation

Our Hint

Law 5 US Soccer's Guide to Procedures Any decent prematch instruction

Our Answer...

This incident, as in most of our scenarios of You Call It, is based on real events. What has the referee done, and can it be remedied? Could all this have been avoided?

That answer is Yes!

Most referee errors are compounded by a lack of communication! Lack of many things can contribute to the demise of a good referee performance: a lack of fitness; lack of knowledge; lack of understanding; lack of experience. These are correctable deficiencies but lack of effort is not fixable, it is a fatal character flaw for referees. Focus is not just a perceived necessity; it is the only way a referee honors the game and the players with true effort!

We here at AskTheRef try to encourage all to look, act and be as professional as a paid/volunteer referee can be, and with due diligence strive for excellence instead of just mediocrity.

At EVERY stoppage, and before restarting, the referee MUST communicate with each assistant, look to the technical areas to be sure nothing is amiss, and check that all officials agree the match CAN continue to flow safely! How long does eye contact, a raised thumb, and a swivel of the head take??

In our scenario, the play is exciting and moving fast. The referee is keen to let them continue! We can forgive the referee for not seeing something behind him; we are however, wondering what instructions were given to the ARs in the pregame? What circumstances were anticipated and covered?

Some things to consider: who signals first for a throw-in on the referee end of the field; who monitors for correct throw-ins on a restart? What could cause a referee to decide to wave off the flag?

The throw-in occurred in the referee?s area of control but he accepted the AR1 flag being held up in the hand indicating red possession as a throw in? No whistle sounded but it seems the referee has accepted the throw-in to restart thus he accepts the ball has gone out of play and thusly play must be restarted. The referee also accepts the pending return of the player. Why even consider allowing him to take the throw in prior to inspection? The referee must feel confident the player has changed his jersey and thus he has checked him visually from his position on the field. Our referee apparently does not like seeing the red team play shorthanded any longer than necessary, so he allows the throw and permits the player to renter the field at this stoppage. The referee has allowed the restart to be taken, without back checking with his assistants to see they have something for him.

The referee begins to have questions (finally!): Why is my AR2 still holding up the flag - I?m OK for the red player to return? Sure, I could have checked him over better but after all he is a player not a sub. He does NOT have to step back into the field as would a substitute to BECOME a player. So I didn?t look over at AR1 but wasn?t it just a straightforward throw-in?

The AR2 who WITNESSED the VC and the direct free kick offence of striking should be doing anything and everything he needs to do to get the referee?s attention so the throw-in does not occur. AR2 may even need to enter the field to separate the players until he can get the attention and help of the rest of the referee team.

The two most important instructions to your ARs in the pregame are:

1. The second last opponent is your baby (offside is YOURS!);

2. NEVER let us screw up ? get my attention however you have to, up to and including calling my name, coming onto the field, or mirroring;
I expect you to use all procedures mandated by the national association. In particular, I expect ______________. Do you have any questions? (Make sure they understand they are responsible for asking if they do NOT understand your instructions.)

Some things to think about:

When did the AR1 notice the raised AR2 flag across the field? What do his mechanics suggest? At least when raising his flag to mirror AR2, he should be pointing to AR2 immediately once he and the referee lock eyes.

Was AR1 truly indicating a throw-in because the referee was indicating the throw-in, but AR1 noticed AR2 across after his initial signal and changed from 90 degrees to a 45 degrees arm raise back to 90 degrees?

A whistle is not required if there is to be a throw-in or because the ball has left the field and we can clearly see here assumptions were made.
The ball went into touch in the referee area of responsibility in the diagonal he controls so what does an AR do different on that side of the field from back at the midline or perhaps even further behind the play when a ball leaves the field along the touchline he looks down along but not in his area of responsibility?

Does he signal the ball out of play and then indicate direction after he looks to the referee to see if the referee has indicated who gets the ball. He then follows that lead. If the ball is obviously out does the AR not signal but waits for the referee to confirm direction? So just when is he going to see the raised far AR2 flag if he is at the moment concentrating on the referee and the ball along the touchline?

What the red player required was more than just a cursory glance by the referee.

What the ARs? required was more than just a cursory glance by the referee.

What was assumed was in fact not what was going on. How did that occur and how do we prevent it in the future? At some point we all have been guilty of failure to focus and we all are keenly aware such lapses ain?t pretty.

Let?s examine what legal recourse the referee has here when he finally figures out the raised flags require play to be stopped. First, he must finally communicate with his ARs, and then figure out how to correctly act on what they tell him. Next, he must send off the blue player who was guilty of violent conduct, reducing blue?s numbers by one. Why? Because this is NEWLY learned information about misconduct not yet acted upon via NEW information provided by a neutral AR.

Law 5

acts on the advice of assistant referees regarding incidents that he has not seen;

Law 6

when misconduct or any other incident has occurred out of the view of the referee;

when offences have been committed whenever the assistants are closer to the action than the referee (this includes, in particular circumstances, offences committed in the penalty area);

Step three is to restart with an INDFK just inside the blue penalty area where the strike occurred.

Law 12

An indirect free kick is also awarded to the opposing team if a player,
in the opinion of the referee:

commits any other offence, not previously mentioned in Law 12,
for which play is stopped to caution or dismiss a player. The indirect free kick is taken from where the offence occurred. * (see page 3)

Decisions of the International F.A. Board

Decision 1

A player who commits a cautionable or sending-off offence, either
on or off the field of play, whether directed towards an opponent, a
team-mate, the referee, an assistant referee or any other person, is
disciplined according to the nature of the offence committed.

Law 5

restarts the match after it has been stopped;

Why not a PK? The referee did not pay attention!

Law 5

The referee may only change a decision on realising that it is incorrect or, at his discretion, on the advice of an assistant referee, provided that he has not restarted play or terminated the match.

The referee did not read the Guide to Procedures for Referees, Assistant Referees and Fourth Officials [US Soccer] The referee was in such a hurry to keep play flowing he failed to be thorough instead was too quick to see his complete responsibilities. Because the striking infraction occurred BEFORE a correct throw-in restart, a PK for the red team is flushed into the ocean of missed opportunity.

Law 3 substitute versus player do we need to make that distinction here more obvious a player temporarily off for equipment or injury REMAINS a player and is treated as such.

any player required to leave the field of play to correct his equipment does not re-enter without the referee?s permission

the referee checks that the player?s equipment is correct before allowing him to re-enter the field of play

the player is only allowed to re-enter the field of play when the
ball is out of play

The referee ALLOWED all this by indicating to the PLAYER, I see you, I acknowledge you are OK and I accept your entry at this stoppage! Go ahead and take the throw in. The throw in was taken correctly in that the referee saw NO violation of THAT procedure. Law 15.

A throw-in is a method of restarting play

The ball is in play immediately after it enters the field of play.

Because the referee allowed a CORRECTLY taken restart in between the time the misconduct occurred and finding out about it, he lost the opportunity to give the PK.

One ?Aw crap!? undoes a whole lot of attaboys!

There will be a certain amount of pandering to the two teams to sooth the ruffles on this. Expect to see some moaning and dissent and perhaps not an easy ?agree to disagree and move on? moment. However, we have another idea that SOME referees might be able to sell as the way to go about this.

The referee may be able to use his reputation based on many years of doing things right and ?getting it right,? together with having field presence of epic proportions to exit this mess. If there is not an inordinate amount of time transpiring between allowing the throw-in and figuring out something else is going on, we submit this possible course of action:

Once we figure out that we need to stop play to sort things out, everything comes to a stop. The referee then consults with the assistant who witnessed the incident. He finds out the CORRECT restart should clearly have been a penalty kick for striking inside the penalty area. He needs to make it CLEARLY understood there was miscommunication between his ASSISTANT and himself... Therefore the throw-in restart was incorrect because it should have been a PK therefore the PK will be awarded and a blue player sent off. (The ball was never PROPERLY put back into play based upon the incident and the proper restart for that incident - miscommunication notwithstanding.)

And believe me, the referee should do all of this with a great deal of drama - consulting with the assistant; heads nodding; pointing out the offending player; sending-off the player who did the striking and getting him off the field; going to the coaches and conveying what happened and when and why there will be a penalty kick. These will be one way conversations. ?Blue #10 sent off for striking - the ball was in play - we have a penalty kick for red.? And leave the conversation so they will be talking to air. Get the ball and set up the penalty kick. There's going to be a lot of crap because of the bad mechanics but that's a hole the referee dug for himself. Because he caused part of the problem here he should probably tolerate some level of grousing by the players, BUT he will bring it to a stop at some point - hopefully without a card. Don't be afraid to use one should it be necessary to get the game back online. Use the penalty kick to help stop the dissent by getting it set up and getting the ball back in play as quickly as possible. Understand this will probably be very difficult at best, but it must happen.

Then the referee will redouble his efforts, run his derriere off and cover the field for any and every possible altercation, because somewhere, sometime, somebody is going to take a crack at someone just ?cause they're peeved at what has happened earlier in the game.

90 minutes are up. Blow the final whistle. Get your sorry arse out of there. And then go bang your head against the proverbial wall for about an hour or two (meaning do a self-assessment and figure out how to NOT go there again!).

In conclusion

There were many good answers which touched on the important points but there were two specific ideas that were incorrect and used as reasons to take action and two asumptions made that lends to our two possible answers.
The throw in was not correctly taken
(1) the player off the field who changed the jersey is ALWAYS a player not a substitute. The referee must signal him in at a stoppage which the referee does on the supposedly throw in stoppage however the player is not required to first step into the field as would a substitute to take the throw because he IS a player. While a closer visual inspection might be better the referee is looking right at him from quite close signalling him to go ahead is sufficent inspection.

Dropball restart
(2) The throw in, the PK or the INDFK can all be made a case for, however, there are no circumstance here where a drop ball is the correct restart.

Assumption
(1)Was the first flag signal a mirror of the far AR?
In the real event no, the AR was at first signalling the throw in to match the referees decision only to see the far AR after and change. A throw in that occurs within the referee's area of responsibility the AR on that side is looking down the touchline is still best positioned more often to indicate when a close ball has passed over into touch. A raised flag to indicate the ball out of play then lowered to 45 degrees to match the referee decision of which team awarded the throw in. A normal throw in signal is to raise the flag up to the 45 degrees directly from the side . This is where the need to yell and point to the opposing AR with the free hand by the AR to grab the referee's attention FAILED to materialize.

Assumption
(2)Did the referee inspect the jersey?
It is apparant the referee had assumed it was a throw in and was consummed with looking over the player who had changed the jersey to allow him to renter. The preoccupation here accounts for why his focus was away from the ARs. No referee would wave in and indicate the player to take the throw in if (a) it was not the correct restart in his opinion at that time and (b) the player was effectively ready to return having changed the jeresey

We can appreciate the complexity of the situations and you are all commended for having the moxy and smarts to try and figure it out or offer solutions that could be correct.

In summary
Communication is key and whether we consider this as two seperate events, (Throw in then INDFK) or one event (a delayed PK) most everyone who answered got the send off correct.

That was our Question YOUR Answer is...

Al a Referee from Sarnia ON CANADA

Slow down and exemplify teamwork with AR's, Ref.

In no particular order of importance:
1. Check with both AR's at all stoppages -- ALWAYS. Minimum is eye-contact. Ensure this is covered in pre-game. I ask my AR's to inform me quietly whenever I forget. Even on quick restarts, a glance to both can be accomplished within less than one second.
2. Pregame -- Instruct AR's to scream your name (or otherwise communicate audibly) if anything is critically amiss that is missed.
3. Pregame -- If you're mirroring a signal, another signal to show that flag is for "mirror" must be indicated. Hollering, "Hold on!" works for me. At this point, niceties and discreet signals sometimes need to be put aside to do what's best for match.
4. Technically, red player must be inspected and step onto field (at minimum touch line) before taking throw in (just like a substitute).

Taking these steps, referee Sends Off blue and awards PK to red.

However, since play has restarted, Ref is almost stuck. If he's quick, he can tell red -- "I blew whistle because you weren't on field so throw-in never happened." Be a bit of a sell to blue, but may work. :) Still a Send Off and PK.

If Ref doesn't see this option in confusion, correct action is stop play. We can still deal with misconduct so send off blue (FIFA Advice -- page 93): "Whenever the assistant referee signals for violent conduct and the signal is not seen immediately, if play has restarted, only disciplinary action may be taken." Since play was stopped to deal with misconduct and player is Sent Off, restart is IFK to red where misconduct took place based on final IFK option in Law 12.

Obviously, latter is not a good option compared to PK.

David Ogrin a Referee from New Braunfels Texas USA

The first thing I want to do as the referee is return my badge. What to do?

I am guilty of not fully communicating with my ARs and for allowing a player to put the ball back into play without me checking his equipment or having him come back onto the field. So I already refereed myself into disrepute.

First, I blow the whistle as hard as I can to bring everything to a stop. I go to my AR on the sub side and ask him why his flag is up. I then run over to the other AR to find out I have a violent conduct foul in the box.

I unravel all of this by first deciding that the ball has not been put back into play legally. The AR’s flag is up which is an indication play is to be stopped. Also despite my hand signals to the red player to throw in, that throw in is not legal. That solves my ability to go back a send off the blue player. I can. So I show the offending blue player the red card and award a penalty kick to the red team.

All of this is going to send blue into frenzy. As I take the abuse of the blue bench I am going to keep pointing to the order of events and the seriousness of the foul play.

My reputation only stays in tact if I keep my cool in the face of the heat from blue. I stand on the punch being the most heinous of the events. That’s where we restart the game from, VC and PK.

Then I take Southwest and get away for two weeks or ask for two weeks of U-6 solos.

AskTheref.com Educating and Amusing The Soccer Referee Since October 11, 1999

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