Question:
Perhaps this slightly outside of your purview, but since USSF does sanction Indoor Referees and Indoor Rules, let’s assume that was the rule of competition instead of this house league.
A player committed a reckless foul and was issued a 2-minute Time Penalty and shown the blue card. On his way out of the arena, he slammed the door in anger. Similar to the act of throwing a water bottle on the field, which I know the WIRs have defined as violent conduct, I equated this as the same, and sent him off. Was I justified? If so, is this an absolute (and also, is the act of throwing water bottles in anger always an act of 100% misconduct mandating punishment by a send-off/dismissal?), or does the Referee have “wiggle room” to manage the situation?
USSF answer (February 13, 2010):
Unless there is some other rule in this competition, under indoor rules the act of slamming the door falls under the category of “misconduct” and should be handled by showing an immediate yellow card and giving that player an additional 5-minute misconduct penalty for the dissent. The team must then have a substitute join the original player in the penalty box; the sub would serve the original 2-minute penalty and come out to put the team at full strength if a goal was scored against them, or at the end of the 2 minutes. Since the penalties would be concurrent, the original offender would serve 7 full minutes, and cannot leave the box until a guaranteed substitution opportunity after the 7 minutes expires, because his team is not playing shorthanded.
