Question:
I was refereeing a U15 Boys game and I was an Assistant Referee. A situation arose in which “gold” kicked the ball toward “whites” goal. The ball went far to the right, and landed on the goal line still in, but barely. It was on the goal line inside the penalty area and since it was still in bounds, I never signaled goal kick.
However the keeper came over, dribbled the ball back to the 6 yard box, and took what he thought was a goal kick.The keeper kicked it, but it never left the box and gold, the keeper’s opponent, shot the ball into the goal. I tucked my flag an ran up the line to signal a goal, but the referee disallowed it thinking it was a goal kick, even though I never signaled for one. This, to me was a pure case of bad communication but is there any way it could have been handled better?
Thanks.
USSF answer (October 1, 2010):
This was a matter of the referee not paying attention to what you, the AR, were telling him — that the ball was still in play. Two thoughts occur, both proactive in nature:
• You could have told the goalkeeper that the ball was still in play, loudly enough for others to hear it, or
• You could have kept the referee informed that the ball was still in play by using a supplementary signal, such as the unapproved but widely used one-handed “advantage” signal, to show this. This should have been discussed in the pregame conference. (To quote the Guide to Procedures: “Other signals or methods of communication intended to supplement those described here are permitted only if they do not conflict with established procedures and only if they do not intrude on the game, are not distracting, are limited in number and purpose and are carefully discussed within the officiating team prior to the commencement of the match.”)
