Question Number: 17090

Law 3 - Number of Players 10/4/2007

RE: rec 11-16 b and g's Other

Scott Bershadsky of Gray, GA USA asks...

Hi, At our last game, we played the first half and a few minutes into the second half with 1 too many players. I thought we were playing 9 plus the goalie, but it was 9 WITH the goalie. About 5 or 6 minutes after we scored to lead 1-0, the other coach told the ref that we had one too many players and wanted to goal taken away. Needless to say, the goal was disallowed, we took off 1 player and then scored again to win 1-0. What should have happened?

Thanks,
Scott

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

What SHOULD have happened is the referee should have done a better job counting players. You say you intentionally used too many players because you didn't know the rules. What was the referee doing when you trotted 10 players on the field at the beginning of the game and the beginning of the second half? That's ridiculous. After you scored and play was restarted the referee CANNOT take away the goal. He should have counted right after the goal. Since he didn't and allowed the kick-off to take place, the goal counted. Once this clueless referee was informed of the extra player, he SHOULD have cautioned the extra player shown the yellow card and made sure that player left the field.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

I can understand a referee not remembering how many players there are supposed to be at a particular game. We have so many variations of the local rules, I have to pull out my "cheat sheet" that the assignor sends out to check what variation we are playing today.

Yet one would expect that when the ref counts 9 players on one side and 10 on the other, warning bells might go off. A simple question would solve the problem. "Hey coach, how many players are we supposed to have?"

Since the ref is as much at fault as anyone for there being an extra player, I'd advise him to keep the yellow card in his pocket this time. Most likely there were a host of extra illegal players during the game, since it went on for so long. Players subbed in and out; who's to say which one of them was the extra player at any given time? The ref shouldn't penalize one of them for his mistake.

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

If the referee allowed the kick off after the goal, then he cannot take it away. He needs to report it to the league. This situation was handled poorly by your referee.