Question Number: 16528

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 9/2/2007

RE: competitive Adult

Rommel of Provo, Utah United States asks...

If player B comes from behind and obviously wins the ball in a fair manner from player A, but player A goes down, what's the call? What Law would that be? or is it just the Referee's judgment on if it is considered dangerous?

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Why did player A go down? If the ball was contacted by Player B, and Player B keeps his feet down and does nothing to trip Player A, there should be no foul even if Player A trips over Player B's feet. That said, it is likewise true that if Player B were to cleanly get all the ball but left a foot up causing Player A to fall, this would be a foul and would result in at least a direct free kick or penalty kick and possibly a caution or send-off followed by the appropriate card.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Ref Contarino offers two options. I'll offer a third reason why player A hits the floor.

He has watched too much television! He has seen a "world star" feign injury after loosing the ball fairly. This guy has refined the art of diving to such high levels that only the slow motion camera sees what happened.

Before player A learns that skill to the "world star" level let's all stop things and award the other side an indirect free kick.

Oh yes, let's caution player A for unsporting behavior in accordance with Law 12, International FA Board Decision 5.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Nathan Lacy

"Comes from behind and wins the ball in an obviously fair manner." Frankly, I haven't seen too many of those - the obvious part, I mean. In most cases that I have seen challenges from behind are difficult to evaluate one way or the other; i.e. fair or foul. In order to differentiate between a fair or foul challenge from behind one must be excellently positioned. That having been said, even if the challenge is indeed fair you will now run into the common mentality that the challenge was from behind and therefore MUST be a foul so it behooves you as the referee to clearly indicate that you indeed saw the challenge and deemed it to be fair. So this leads us to the concept of game control. If challenges from behind start to creep into your match you must be very careful in how you deal with them. Believe me, they will increase in number and intensity and before you know it you will either be booking somebody for SFP, VC, or some combination of the above when either a challenge becomes so intense that it endangers the safety of the opponent or the player who believes they were fouled gets up and clobbers the guy who made the tackle. I would suggest that you be clear in your mind as to what you WILL allow and WILL NOT allow regarding these types of challenges. They can lead to a very unpleasant ending to your match. All the best,

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Rommel,
if it was in an *OBVIOUSLY* fair manner then the taking of the ball is not the issue but now we consider such things as whether the player on the ground is trying to trick or deceive the referee into calling a foul that obviously does not exist? Was the player simply fatigued? Was there some minor or unavoidable contact where the player fell over an outstretched body part? Or was it really FAIR and did we have some bad positioning on the angle of view that later the camera will show us crap I did not see that?
The interesting thing is all this flashes through a referees mind in an instant. He might call out, "Nothing there or good challenge! Etc.. Or he might just indicate up, up, up with the flat of hand and shake his head no way. Or he might blow the whistle, isolate, talk write and then display a yellow card to indicate this downed player is being cautioned for simulation!
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

If B won the ball in a fair manner, then there probably is not a foul here. Sometimes contact will occur and there doesnt always need to be a foul called.