Question:
Another question for you posed to me by a referee. I’ve massaged the wording a bit to keep those involved nameless but didn’t make any changes impacting the situation or ensuing decision. Here goes:

At an NCSL U16D2 boys game there was a young referee in the center with two adults as his assistants. One of the assistants was the centers father.

Early on in the 2d half with the score having recently been tied at 1-1, a foul was called resulting in a Penalty Kick restart. Dad thinks it was the correct decision from his view from the half. The defending player committing the foul was hurt. Instead of the coach coming on to the field to aid the injured player, two of his team mates helped him off the field. Before the player was off the field (and the sub on the field), the referee allowed the PK to be taken, which resulted with a goal being scored. Assistant Referee, Dad, raised his flag and called the referee over, advising the referee he should not have allowed the PK to be taken since the substitution hadn’t been completed, and the correct way to restart was to make sure the defending team had 11 players on the field, and to have the PK retaken. After giving this advice consideration, the referee ordered the penalty kick to be retaken which this time was saved. The attacking team was not happy. The defending team went on to win 4-1, the attacking team did not protest. The referee reportedly handled the rest of the game without incident.

Granted, the referee should have done better by ensuring the injured player was properly substituted before signaling for the PK to be taken and this wouldn’t have been an issue. But since the signal to start was given the question is can the referee now change his mind and stop play? Or since the signal was given, play restarted and a goal was scored, should it be allowed to stand? Or, in the interest in Fair Play, did he do the right thing by ordering the PK to be retaken after the injured player was substituted?

My initial thought is haste makes waste and since there didn’t appear to be any infraction related to encroachment or improper player positioning during the taking of the penalty kick, the goal should have been allowed since this wasn’t really a substitution based on the way the situation was described to me. How did I do regarding my take of the situation? You’re never too old to learn.

USSF answer (June 19, 2011):
The failure to allow a substitution is not the problem here. The referee’s error was in allowing the penalty kick to be taken while the injured player and his teammates were otherwise engaged, Although these players could not “defend” against the penalty kick, they had the right to be present on the field in positions permitted by the procedures for a penalty kick. The referee, who allowed the teammates to help the injured player off the field, should have waited for the two teammates to return to those positions.…

Question:
While serving as an AR, I witnessed a flagrant foul in which an attacking player used his cleats to rake the back of a defending player’s calf & knee after a ball had been cleared away from the goal. The referee, having turned back up field to follow the developing play, did not see the foul. Of course, I (and the spectators) immediately got the attention of the referee, but as I took my eyes off of the player to make eye-contact with the referee, I lost the offending player in a crowd of players. What really complicated the issue was that both teams had uniforms with numbers only on the back of their jerseys and the offending player was facing me on the far side of the field so I was not able to get his jersey number before he intentionally ‘disappeared’ into a group of his peers. Obviously, this player should have been sent off and the team should have played short for the remainder of the game, but we didn’t know who to send off. The referee made the decision to award the direct kick (and a goal was subsequently scored), but did not send anybody off.

After discussing this incident with other referees after the game, there was a suggestion that, though we didn’t know who exactly committed the offense the team should still play short a player so, perhaps, we could have had the coach or team captain pick a player to be sent off and attributed with the foul. Would this have been an acceptable course of action?

USSF answer (May 30, 2011;
Although it seems unjust, the simple answer is, no, the referee cannot arbitrarily make a team play short under these circumstances. A team may voluntarily play short for as long as it wishes for a variety of reasons, but there is no authority under the Laws of the Game for the referee to enforce such an action except in the specific, limited circumstance of sending off a player from that team and displaying the red card.

Among other things, your loss of focus on the perpetrator (at least based on the description you provided) was due to taking your attention away from the participants in the foul and we trust you now understand that this is not a good idea. As an AR and in the absence of beeper flags, you “get the attention of the referee” by raising your flag and then relying on the AR on the other side of the field to do likewise (called “mirroring” or “cross flagging”) if the referee is not looking in your direction. It is one of the responsibilities of the referee to periodically make eye contact with either or both ARs to ensure that, at any given moment, one or the other of them is not trying to communicate a problem, and it is a good idea to discuss such situations in the pregame.…

Question:
A coach relayed an incident to me this morning:

Summary:
Loose ball in the box in front of Woodbury goal. Referee blows whistle, having seen a handball. The Woodbury goalie hears the whistle, stops playing. A Watertown player shots and scores. Referee allows goal; begins setting up for kickoff. Upon questioning, referee says he allowed advantage to play out. Woodbury argues misblown whistle, so referee waves off goal and conducts penalty kick.

Obviously Watertown now questions awarding and disallowing of goal.

Questions: Is it correct that: 1) if the referee was going to allow advantage to play out, he should have not blown the whistle; 2) if the kick came less than a second or two after the visual on the handball, the ref should have waited to see if the ball went in and whistled the handball only if it had not gone in; 3) if the ref blew the whistle, even though a shot was happening, or about to happen, the correct thing is to award the PK?

USSF answer (May 23, 2011):
Yes on all counts.…

Question:
A player receives a caution for a tackle. The player who was tackled is still down for several minutes, there has been no restart to the game. Can the referee issue a Second Caution to the same player?

USSF answer (April 17, 2011):
1. Directly to the question you posed:
On what pretext would the referee want to issue a second caution in this situation? The referee saw the initial act as either reckless or as unsporting behavior, so called the foul and issued the caution. The fact that the “injured” player is still down is not grounds for a second caution.

Instead of worrying about a caution, the referee should be interested in the condition of the player on the field. If the “injury” seems to be serious, the referee should allow a competent person from the player’s team to examine the player and help him off the field.

2. An alternative solution:
Because play has not been restarted the referee may, upon mature reflection over the nature of the challenge and subsequent foul, change his or her mind from the initial caution to a send-off for serious foul play or violent conduct, whichever is applicable.…

Question:
What obligation does my keeper have to chase after errant shots on goal that go 30-40 yards out of bounds after each shot. Our rules required the home team (not me) to provide 3 game balls but they only provided one. After the first errant shot, I asked the AR where the other game balls were and was told there were none. I suggested they get some because my keeper is not going to run 60-80 yards after each bad shot. After no other balls were forthcoming and after about the fifth bad shot, I told my keeper to walk to get the balls, and the referee criticized me for timewasting. I said this would not be an issue if you would get the required number of game balls. My real question is does my keeper have to get the balls at all?

USSF answer (April 12, 2011):
Whichever team is putting the ball back into play must make the effort to go after balls that are kicked beyond the immediate area of the goal line. (We cannot give a specific distance as a measure, as fields differ in their setting.) In any case, in order to expedite play each team should volunteer one person to stand behind each goal to retrieve the errant balls.

If the rules of the competition (league, cup, club) require that the home team provide three balls, then the referee MUST also enforce the rules before worrying about the visiting team not running great distances for the ball. However, if the home team cannot come up with three balls, then the visiting team may be able to furnish them. (The referee must also have checked all three balls prior to the start of the game for suitability, in accordance with Law 2 and Law 5.)…