Question Number: 29883

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 11/2/2015

RE: Select Adult

James Scaglione of Miamisburg, Ohio United States asks...

This pertains to Law 12, Persistent Infringement. What constitutes PI? Is it the persistent fouling of a player against their opponent or the persistent fouling of a team against a 'targeted' opponent?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi James,
PI (Persistent Infringement) is based on an individual player targeting one or more opponents by repeatedly fouling them in a pattern discerned by the referee to be a deliberate act or inexcusable misconduct without regard for the LOTG or possibly their safety usually 3 or so over a short period of time say 10 to 15 minutes or a accumulative slightly larger amount 5 to 6 over the course of the game. I should note that if you play a successful advantage and it is this very player who was causing the foul, that counts in the overall total. The key is showing up on the referee's radar by undisciplined play and thus being noticed as a player we NEED to be watching! Trust me no player should be seeking that kind of attention.

As mentioned the tactical aspect of PI carries over from an individual's cautionable misconduct to a team tactic of USB when an entire team takes turns targeting a valued opposing single player of reputation and tries to deliberately foul him to intimidate or in desperation and make it appear random. Again what shows up on the referee's radar is the fact this great player is often picking himself off the ground and it dawns upon the referee the other team has established a pastern of putting him there. Remember getting noticed is BAD!

In both cases be it a PI individual caution or a USB caution against a team tactic, the referee will often warn the individual he is acting irresponsibly and often in the team tactic he calls out the captain to warn that a continuation of the targeting of the opposing player by any type of fouls could result in additional misconduct for the next player who fouls this opponent .

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Persistent infringement is one player repeatedly fouling. There is no firm number of fouls before PI should be called - it depends some on how the fouls are distributed. Fouls in the 8th, 23rd, 41st and 69th minutes are a whole lot different than 2 or 3 fouls within just a few minutes.

There is a similar pattern, where multiple players foul one target opponent, that you are asking about. That too must not be allowed. After noticing the pattern the ref should announce that fouls against the player must stop. If they don't, another foul would also result in a caution, but the reason would be unsporting behavior rather than persistent infringement.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi James
Persistent infringement is what it says. A player persistently infringing Law 12. It is a series of fouls that are frustrating the opponents or disrupting play with constant awards of free kicks.
Now there is no exact number yet many referees at the highest level have it somewhere around 4/6 relatively close to each other. For me it is when a player comes to my attention through constant minor fouling. It can be a midfielder or defender who is stopping the opponents playing with fouls that may not fit into other cautions such as being reckless or tactical.