Question Number: 14967

Law 5 - The Referee 3/10/2007

RE: Select Other

Ryan of Flower Mound, TX USA asks...

My question is in regard to Q&A LOTG 5.15 which states the following.

Q: A spectator blows a whistle and a defender inside his own penatly area picks up the ball with both hands, assuming that play has been stopped. What action does the referee take?

A: If the referee considers this whistle to be outside interference, he should stop the match and restart with a dropped ball*.

Last week I was doing a U10 girls game and in the second half of my match, a another match started nearby where the official was using the same whistle (the good old Fox 40) as I was using. So the first time a loud whistle came from that field the goalkeeper who had the ball assumed play had stop and walked out of the penalty area holding the ball and handed it to me. Unaware of the whistle conflict at that point I awarded a direct free kick for the opponents outside the penalty area. My first question is, should I have categorized the whistle of another official nearby as outside interference and resumed play with a drop ball?

After another whistle from the nearby field where both teams stopped playing I realized what was happening and I swapped out my whistle with the second whistle I had in my pocket to avoid any further confusion for the players. Was I correct in doing so during the course of the match?

Thanks again for the clarification.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

This is an outside interference IF you think it is! You're the referee and only your opinion counts on any subject. Q&A 5.15 makes these statements because in previous times players were expected to know when a whistles sound came from their referee. This assumed spectators were sane and we all know about that. Giving a dropped ball to restart this kind of inadvertent stoppage in play is correct.

Changing whistles is a very good fix to the problem. In fact it is one of the reasons we carry more than one. The other is dropping it. Good idea in having it in your pocket because if it was tied to the other one and you dropped it, both are lost.

My luck is I'll find them on top of the "gift" left by little Johnnie's dog.

There's another solution: retune your Fox 40! Make sure it isn't the same as the pitch mine's tuned to...

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

At this age group I think I would have asked the young keeper why he was walking outside his penalty area with the ball. When he told you it was because he had heard a whistle you then could have stopped play, told the keeper to ghet back inside his penalty area and quickly drop the ball to him and begin play, OR decide the handling was trifling and had no effect on the game and simply tell yhim to get back into his penalty area and resume play. Changing whistles is always a good idea