Question Number: 29871

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 10/30/2015

RE: Adult

Russell of Sydney, Aistralia asks...

As a proud Aussie, I'm disappointed we were torn apart by the Nigerian team in the FIFA U-17 World Cup Round of 16.
As a keen follower of football - gee the Nigerian's were good.
Some excellent goals, some rubbish defending, and a surely a question mark over the challenge leading up to the forth goal.
Am I just being bias, or, is there something in the challenge that says on another day, maybe a foul against the attacker would have been blown.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Russell,

It was a disappointing game for the boys, no doubt.
Unfortunately I didn't watch the full game, so I've only seen highlights - and I've only been able to find footage of this challenge from a fairly high angle. So that's not really a good angle to view it from at all - it's easy to presume it was a charge from behind given one player came from behind, but it may have been possible for the challenge to have been made fairly and just knock the defender off his feet.

From the footage I've seen it looks like a charge from behind - even a charge to the back of the shoulder would still be a foul. When there's a significant speed difference, even a shoulder-to-shoulder charge may be a foul. May, not will.

To me, it looks like a charge to either the back or the back of the shoulder was likely, but I'd prefer to see some clearer footage. Sometimes an incident that looks like one thing from a fairly average angle can be revealed to be quite different from another angle.

Given the footage at hand there is definitely a question mark over this one though!

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Russell
There did not look like much on field complaint about the challenge from the player involved. Only two *complaints* from six / seven Australian players close to the action #16 #19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxAakWaaoF0
Game was probably over as a contest at that time so perhaps there was not much point although onfield reactions afterwards from players can tell a tale.
Anyway the referee had a pretty decent angle of view of the contact certainly better than any video I have seen. The fact that the attacker had almost instant control of the ball may also have swayed the referee into the no call and that it was a legal charge, side by side with the ball at playing distance. Was the attacker just physically stronger than the opponent? Was there an element of tiredness? The referee thought so and as a FIFA badged official with a good view I would not doubt his call. Perhaps if there was any doubt the easy call was award a free kick. So the referee IMO was certain that all was legal.
Also I did not watch the match in full so taking an incident in isolation can be difficult. The Nigerians are big strong physical players and contact even at this age group can be somewhat unequal in strength terms. A series of accepted strong contacts between players and going to ground easy can somewhat condition the referees view of physical contact throughout the game. In this step up level players have to be strong and it was no doubt a learning for many.
What we can say is that if the arm is used it is a push and if the charge is into the back of the player that would be a foul also. If it was shoulder to shoulder and not reckless then it is not a foul. I sway in favour of the legal charge as that is a possibility with no apparent arm use, viewing it from a somewhat poor angle of view to determine otherwise.