Question Number: 16248

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 8/8/2007

RE: High School

James Hart of Oakland, MD USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 16217

Follow up question for #16217

In that question what I really meant was can a player who is sitting on the bench receive a yellow/red cards simultaneously (held in one hand) for misconduct to show that he has been disqualified and still the team does not play short a player.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

James you'll find that there are no players sitting on the substitutes bench, only substitutes, substituted players and the technical staff. You will find in the latest edition of the NFHS High School Soccer Rules the note when displaying a second caution to someone who is not a player, in other words someone on the bench, the referee is to show the yellow and then the red. Never has it entered into the minds of the 13, otherwise intelligent, members of the high school rules committee to reduce the number of players when disqualifying a substitute, substituted player or member of the technical staff; at least not yet...

Give them time, given some of the inane rules that now exist I wouldn't think they would pass this opportunity to defy reason.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The other way to look at this is that *every* disqualification of a substitute is in effect a yellow/red. The sub is gone, the team doesn't play short. No matter what the offense was.

I concur with Ref Fleischer that I do not put it past NFHS to screw this up sometime as well. They've already made it possible for you to foul your own teammate. Playing short for substitute misconduct might seem logical to them, in some distorted view of reality.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

A player is on the field or temporarily off the field. I assume you mean a substitute sitting on the bench commits misconduct for which he is cautioned and then shown the yellow card. If this is a second caution, proper procedure is to show the yellow card then send off the substitute and show the red card. Since he is a substitute and not a player, the team does not play down but there is now one less named substitute on the bench. However, you are dealing with High SChool where virtually anything is possible and they do not play soccer by the LOTG like the rest of the world. There could be some sort of nonsensical pink card (I believe they call it a soft red) where the sub doesn't have to leave. My answer is based on the LOTG which can always be wrong when dealing with the lunacy that permeates US High School soccer.