Question Number: 15410

Law 5 - The Referee 5/7/2007

RE: College

Robert Whalen of Los Altos , California USA asks...

Law 5 states that the Referee is responsible for the Match Report.

1a. If a Referee needs or requests information from an Assistant Referee, or the Assistant Referee offers it, how is this information incorporated into a Match Report?

For example, does the Referee attach the ARs own report, or does the Referee re-write any written report given by the AR based upon the Referee's discretion?

1b Are there any circumstances where Supplemental Reports are provided separately by Assistant Referees?

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Bob I ask the assistant to write a report when he is the one seeing something. That is attached to my report together with the action I take. It is a simple thing to do and perfectly acceptable. The fourth official will write reports when the referee has not seen something nor acted upon it. Assistants report through the referee unless they are seeking some kind of disciplinary action.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Debbie Hoelscher

When the referee writes their report, they can include in their wording something like: "in xx minute of the match, my assistant referee informed me that...." Or, "my assistant referee informed me that in the xx minute of the match, the following occurred...." One statement inferes that the referee is getting information from the AR during the match, the other statement infers that information was received after the fact (during the halftime interval, or immediately after the match) either or both of these can/should be incorporated into the report as credible information received from the AR. The Supplemental Report is for the fourth official to report things that were not seen or acted upon by the referee for that match.

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

On rare occasions I have asked my Assistant Referee to send me a supplemental report which I would attach to the game record. This can be useful especially when you have sent off a player on the advice of the assistant for something you haven't seen for yourself.

Generally though - I will report for the AR. It should be one consise report if possible, if you add too much (redundant) documentation you'll annoy the people who have to read it.