Question:
In the 30th to 36th minute of a 45 minute second half game for U17B, there was a foul that took down a player and they were injured. That player remained on the field until the coaches could be called on to attend to him. During that time, the parent of this player ran onto the field yelling at the referees that they allowed his son to get injured because they didn’t make the calls necessary to stop the rough play. The coaches from the parents’ team got the parent off the field of play and away from the referees. The player was then taken off the field. During this time, the referees conferred in a conference and then came back and stated the match was suspended due to parent coming on the field.
Since the match was called in the 36th minute of the 2nd half does the score stand as official? Should the officials have notified the coach to have the parent removed or the match would be suspended before they just suspended the match? Can they have the results of the match overturned to a forfeit for the team with whose parent entered the field of play?
USSF answer (October 24, 2011):
We cannot understand why the referee needed to have a conference with the ARs to determine that the match was suspended. The match is automatically suspended the moment the referee allows authorized medical (or coaching) staff to enter the field to examine the player.
Surely the referee told the teams that the match had been “terminated” because of the actions of the parents, who entered the field without permission and then verbally attacked the referee.
What happens when a match is terminated is dictated by the rules of the competition (league or state/local association, etc.), not by the referee. The referee must include full details in the match report. Then the competition authority will determine what remains to be done;
