Question Number: 17635

League Specific 11/3/2007

RE: High School

Helene Carmany of Dracut, USA asks...

On the last game of the season, (which did not count in any way or form because it was played past the deadline time to get the final numbers in) one of the players received a red card for a foul mouth (he was protecting his teammate from one of the opposing players who ended up getting a red card himself later in the game). Anyway, the foul mouth red card player left for the rest of the game (as did the opposing player). Now playoffs start, single elimination games. Foul mouth player was told by the ref that night he got the card, that he misses the first playoff game. He sat out that game, his team did win, now they are saying that he has to miss one more game.........where are the rules? I can't even find a rule that says the player is to miss any future games. Now the opposing player that ended up getting a red card later in the game, it doesn't effect them at all cuz they didn't make the playoffs.....

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

The referee has no authority to tell the player how many games he misses. The referee is supposed to write a full report and fax it to the proper authorities asap. The people in charge of these things will then decide how many games the player has to sit out. The minimum is one.