Question Number: 15408

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 5/7/2007

RE: Competitive High School

Joe Gaddy of Edmonds, Wa. USA asks...

The situation. Player A has beaten (faked out, dribbled past, created scoring chance) player B on several occasions with his speed and quickness.Immediately after one of those occasions a teammate of player B yells at him to "Break his F***ing leg" next time, referring to player A. Both the AR and the center referee clearly hear the youg man. There is no doubt as to what he said, who he said it to and who he was referring to.

What would be the appropriate course of action for the referee to take at that time?

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Instantly stop play, unless a goal is going to be taken away. Disqualify [red card] the "young gentleman". If he continues his yelling and the coach does nothing about it the match is abandoned. Once he is in the locker room or on the bus you may resume play.

This must be dealt with instantly because it is a safety issue, the welfare of a player is at stake. If you don't deal with this and he follows through on the threat how are you going to feel?

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Debbie Hoelscher

The High School Federation has made it abundantly clear that games will be played with good sportsmanship. Clearly this is not an example of good sportsmanship and perhaps it's even taunting! So the appropriate couse of action: 1) look to be sure that Player A isn't about to actually score. 2) Stop play when you have made your determination that Player A's immediate opportunity has been lost. 3) Toss the Player B's teammate (the one who so eloquently gave his opinion) out on his bum. 4) Do not restart play until the disqualified player has left the area. (This player CANNOT stay at the bench area. HE MUST either sit on the bus with the bus driver or an appropriate administrative individual for baby-sitting or be taken to the locker room we the appropriate adult supervision). The match report must include EXACTLY what happened and when; and EXACTLY what was said -- you can put the words in quotes, but spell them out completely. In no way, however, should the referee give an opinion as to disciplinary action for the player. Our job is to report the facts.

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

Stop the match at an appropriate time (99% of the time this will be immeidiately). Next, DQ the player who made the statement and make his team play short for the rest of the match. This player is guilty of using foul language at the least - making verbal threats to player safety is also a big problem.

The information above can provide you further guidelines on how to continue to deal with this situation.