Question Number: 16035

Law 5 - The Referee 7/14/2007

RE: Pro Professional

Jose Medeiros of Lawrence, Ma. USA asks...

Recent game U-20 Worlds in Canada Portugal-Chile, referee shows a red card to a Portuguese player, here no problem. Then a Portuguese player takes the red card from referee's hand and then hands it back to referee again, referee shows him the red card.
In my opinion he should have been shown yellow card and never a red card.

Thank you,
JAdeMedeiros

Answer provided by Referee Jon Sommer

I have just watched this clip on youtube and totally agree with the referees decision. In my opinion there is a case for 4 red cards here as the Portugal players are man handling the referee who is trying to do his job in the correct way...which is the dismissal of the player for violent conduct. The player snatching the card out of the referees hand comes under Law 12 disciplinary action S6 which states "a player must be sent off and shown the red card if they use offensive or insulting or abusive language and/or gestures". This was committed directly to the referee and thus the red card was absolutely the right decision. You should never touch a referee let alone steal anything from him. You have taken your offense from the cautionable 'dissent by word or action' to the dissmisal as I have just stated.

Regards

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

The current thing players do, when the referee has done something they don't like, is crowd around the referee and argue. They see, on the television every day, professional players being allowed to do this so they engage in the activity themselves. It can be stopped very quickly if all referees, at all lower levels of The Game, took the disciplinary action available to them in the Laws of the Game. The lessons learned as young players would carry through to the professional levels as older players gave way to the younger ones. In the World Cup 2006 referees were asked, among other things, to deal with this -- they, as a whole, did not. Those that did as told looked rather bad, indeed.

In the MLS, what the USA considers top level Football, a referee doing this would no longer be assigned to matches and I suspect this might be true in other professional leagues throughout the world. Wouldn't it be nice if the opposite were true?

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Also, unfortunately, young players see this nonsense being allowed think they are allowed to do it too. Players surrounding a referee and yelling at him have each earned at least a caution and yellow card if not a send off and red

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

Some great comments made here. I agree with Keith that this kind of nonsense has the ripple effect on younger players. We need to take action. Snatching a card from the referee is beyond just dissent. There has been physical contact involved. This player should be sent off for either violent conduct or foul, abusive, offensive language and/or gestures.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Yes tempers and attitudes were in high gear!
However, the referee saw Mato?s excessively charging in, not the "because" of the Chilean player pushing the head down of the Portuguese player Coentrao after the collision where the Chilean was backed into and knocked down by this same Portuguese player Coentrao flinging his arms back on the throw in.

The referee saw the charge by Mato as VC he was not seeing or dismissed the interchange of the back in and head push as insufficient to stop play. Referees are often put in tough no win situations because they see retaliation more than the preliminary lead ups.

The second red card shown to Zequinha was not only for the card being grabbed but the situation itself and the items discussed on the field in that controversy were not ordinary kitchen table talk I can assure you. Zequinha and others who dissent the red card so voraciously have PASSED the cautionary portion of law into abuse and threatening gestures. I absolutely can not abide players surrounding the referee grabbing and touching him.

Yes National pride and the desire to do well is high priority but the essence of FAIR PLAY is the word FAIR and as difficult as it is to see a dream diminished the referee at that level has dreams too and a failure to take appropriate action by whatever arbitrary standards FIFA chooses to measure it effectively ends his as well!

We know that fans and monetary interests drive elite soccer and referees are not allowed to randomly hand out cards for many of the things we as referees here on this panel actually encourage. I can tell you that failure to respect 10 yards at this FIFA event is so discouraging I can barely stand watching it at times. Many of these matches lose up to 20 minutes for the garbage of let us see how we can turn a FREE kick into a two minute circle jerk.

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Debbie Hoelscher

I gotta hand it to the Chilean goal keeper (in yellow). He came in and got his teammates outta there. Showed real leadership. At least for that moment, he understood the importance of letting the referee do their job.

Answer provided by Referee Nathan Lacy

First, the above discussions are right on the mark with regards to the confrontations and so forth. However, there is something else to consider in this situation. The two red players who pass by the white player on the ground - I believe their numbers are 1 and 14. Watch their feet as they "rake" their feet/shoe laces/shinguards across the arm of the white player who is on the ground. This is very subtle and very nasty. It hurts like hell and somewhat reminds me of the foot drag by a striker as he "attempts" to jump over a keeper who has come out to make the save - they let their foot with laces exposed dip every so slightly down to make contact with the keepers head/face/whatever. Nasty nasty nasty. And unless the ref is right there and on top of the event it goes without consequence from the refs. What transpired after this contact by red may have been a cumulation of frustration by white towards these events. It looks to me like red got away with a couple of cheap shots on this one for which white got tagged with the retalliation. I wonder what might have been the result had the AR stepped in quickly to deal with the contact by red with the player on the ground - I speak of the AR because the contact is shielded from the ref's view by the bodies of the players on the ground but the AR has an ideal view. Offered as food for thought. All the best,

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