Question Number: 20991

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 3/17/2009

Rob-C of London, UK asks...

At a match I played in recently, a player was taking a long time to take a throw in. He eventually dropped the ball for another player to take the throw in. The referee then awarded the throw in to the other team.

Was he entitled to do this? Surely if he considered that the offence was timewasting, he should have booked the player and added time on at the end?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

It is true if the throw in did NOT occur, this was delaying the restart and thus cautionable. The correct decision is to show the yellow card to the player wasting the time and inform the team to get on with it!

To award the throw-in to the opposing team the throw in must be performed incorrectly. To classify your version of 'he eventually dropped the ball for another player to take the throw in' that *drop* must be considered to be the actual throw-in action.

To use the drop as a throw-in, although it would seem to be a stretch some referees often invent ways of dealing with obtuse circumstances that bend the laws a bit too far at times.
This sounds like one of those times!

At issue is a miss-application of law allows for a protest to at least be considered!
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

The referee has no authority to award the throw to the other team due to time wasting. He should have cautioned the player for delaying the restart of play but the throw should have been taken by his team not the opponents.

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

Rob,

You've got the solution to the problem correct. Good job.

This referee broke the laws of the game, unless of course when you say dropped the referee saw the player take the throw-in procedure unlawfully. If that was the case then the referee was correct, however based on your description it seems highly unlikely that the thrower attempted to put the ball in play, but instead transferred it to his teammate.

If the referee was new to the laws, I could see how he might be confused. The Law itself states:

For any other infringement of this law: the throw-in is taken by a player of the opposing team.

The player in question did not meet with the correct procedure, so the referee may have confused the language of the law to lead him to his decision. If time wasting was the concern, then this is not a violation of Law 15. If an improper throw-in was the concern, then the player was not attempting to deliver the ball, which is how we know to apply the requirements of Law 15 or not at any particular moment.