Question:
1. in a game played where corner flags were not available…if the ball goes out of play from an attacker’s foot and travels directly over where the corner flag would have been, is it restarted with a goal kick or a throw in?  Are corner flags required for a game? must they actually be a flag or can they be just a post (flag on one that was provided had torn off)?

2. keeper commits a passback violation that was not obvious to all players (or to the referee) but was to the two attacking strikers.  Immediately following the keeper picking up the ball but before the referee had blown his whistle, the striker pulled the ball out of the keeper’s hands (not unsportingly though), placed it on the ground, passed it backward to the other striker who taps it into the goal.  The referee agreed that it was a passback violation, but took a second or two to fully process it and decide that it was an infraction.  The whistle was never blown, even after the ball went into the net.

question…is the infraction enough for the foul to occur, or must the referee blow his whistle to award the foul? since the foul and misconduct situations do not require there to be a whistle, would this situation require one?  is this a goal?  What about less controversial ones..is the whistle the device that awards the foul or communicates it?

it goes without saying that the crew got in a lot of trouble (with the players) for allowing this to happen.

USSF answer (April 10, 2009):
1. Yes, corner flags and posts are required. However, if they are not available, the referee must make certain that he or she can judge where the corner is. The final decision in your question is up to the referee.

2. It’s difficult to determine in which instance the referee made himself look more foolish: (a) in missing the goalkeeper picking up the deliberate pass from his teammate (?!?!?!) or (b) in allowing the striker to pull the ball from the goalkeeper’s hands while the ball was still in play, at least in the eyes of the referee. Where was the assistant referee? Where was the referee? Neither one was anywhere near the field of play, right?

Fact 1: The players (through the IFAB) make the Laws of the Game, but it’s the referee who enforces them, not the players.

Fact 2: The whistle is needed to stop play for a free kick or penalty kick. (See Interpretations, use of the whistle.)…

Question:
There was an incident in a match I was recently AR for while the referee was distracted by an injured player from the play. I was the trail AR and the lead AR did not think a foul was committed. It happened on the far side of the field from the other AR. It was the center’s “quadrant”. I believed the offense was a foul and a send off for either serious foul play or the denial of an obvious goal scoring opportunity. The offense apparently was retaliatory. From my point of view the foul and misconduct was obvious. The other AR was parallel to the play and did not see the leg stick out as apparently as it did to me. The referee did stop play but he stopped play for the injury. Although I was far from the play I had a clear view. The coaches were on my side and the coach who saw the incident was yelling for a foul. I raised my flag. The center ran over to the other AR to discuss the incident. He then saw my flag and I waved him over. I asked him whether the other AR had seen the incident. “He saw nothing.” (which I later would learn meant he did not believe it was a foul but for the sake of this question we will assume the AR had been looking at the injured player too). I then advised the center that a foul had occurred and that there should be misconduct. He replied that it was not my call to make since it was not in my quadrant. I had a much clearer view then the other two officials on the field and I was told that this was not my place to make a decision because of how the decision would look. I thought that the duty of the AR was to advice the center when he/she has a better view of the incident which was obvious in this case. How should these incidents be handled and should the center take my advice even though I was a good 40 yards away from the incident.
The summary: Other officials were distracted, incident in the other half of the field and was near the 30 yard line, I had a clear view and believed it was a foul and misconduct. What should be the procedure for this situation?

USSF answer (March 31, 2009):
Some referees suffer from ego or insecurity problems. Do your job as assistant referee and let them do theirs.

You followed the correct procedure, but you need to remember that your primary role as an AR is to ASsist, not INsist. The AR provides information to the referee. If the referee fails to accept that information, no matter the reason, then the AR accepts the decision and gets on with the game. He or she has done his/her duty and the referee has made a decision and the referee alone bears the burden of living with the consequences.

You can run the line for us any time.

And, just to be certain that ALL referees and ARs are on the same page, we need to remind everyone that there is no such thing as an “AR quadrant” and a “referee quadrant” — Law 6 makes it VERY clear that the weighing of AR information should be based on who has the “better view” and that this applies not only to whether the referee or an AR has a better view, but also to which AR might have a better view. “Quadrants” went out of favor years ago.…

Question:
In the final few minutes of a tied match the referee correctly awards a normal PK to the blue team.

The whistle signal to begin the PK occurs first.

Then, out of sight of the referee, outside the penalty area, a red defender deliberately kicks the ankle of a blue attacker. The PK is taken but initially saved by the keeper; however, the rebound is fought for. In a bit of scruffy ping-pong play the ball eventually winds up inside the red goal. Referee was good to go with the goal and a kick off but when he looks over to the lead AR to confirm, he sees the AR has raised his flag pointing across to the trail AR. By now a blue attacker is retaliating against the red defender punching him, so the referee is briefly unaware that the raised flag was to mirror the TRAIL AR who witnessed the kicking offense! After the MESS is discussed and the dust settles the referee disallows the goal, retakes the PK and only cautions the defender who kicked and the attacker who punched!

The retaken PK is saved and the game ends tied.

If you were referee what would you have done differently, if anything at all?

USSF answer (March 21, 2009):
The defender’s action had no part to play in the penalty kick, so there has been no violation of the procedure for taking a penalty kick — and, even if did, the violation would fall under the “violation by defender but the ball went into the net so it counts” rule. The defender’s action occurred during a stoppage of play (remember, the whistle had been blown but it appears the ball had not yet been put into play) — thus, it is not a foul and therefore advantage cannot be applied to it. The referee has until the next stoppage to take care of it, but in this case the next stoppage is for the goal scored from the penalty kick and the subsequent play.

Accordingly:
(1) goal counts
(2) “deliberately kicks the ankle” sounds like violent conduct, so send off the defender
(3) although poorly constructed,the following “By now a blue attacker is retaliating against the red defender punching him” seems to mean that that the blue attacker was punching the red defender in retaliation (because the red defender didn’t punch him, he kicked him in the ankle) so the blue attacker should be sent off for violent conduct because this occurred during a stoppage of play. If we have read the sentence incorrectly, then the blue attacker might not get a red card for VC but he surely gets some card for retaliating.
(4) Restart with a kick-off…