Question:
During the recent recert, there was an exam question asking which card should be issued for the listed circumstances.A defender impedes the progress of an attacker during an obvious goal scoring opportunity.
Is it a yellow since Law 12 states that the resulting kick was not a DFK or PK? Or is it a red since it was an OGSO?
Question #2: Law 4 states that a player cannot wear “any type of jewelry.” When asking the instructor for clarification when the “religious icon” clause was mentioned in class, I was shown the “Advice To Referees” booklet that stated the religious artifacts could indeed be worn. Are necklaces acceptable if they have a Cross/Star of David/etc????????
USSF answer (December 31, 2007):
It is unclear from your question just what is happening in the situation involving the obvious goalscoring opportunity. If the player who actually has the OGSO is denied that opportunity by a player who commits an indirect free kick infringement, then the correct decision is to send off that player and show the red card. (See Law 12, Sending-Off Offenses, 5: denies an obvious goalscoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player’s goal by an offense punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick.) The correct restart for impeding the progress of an opponent is an indirect free kick.
Regarding jewelry the answer is somewhat complicated. We know what the Advice says, but there is more to it than that. On medicalert bracelets, the answer is clear. As long as it is safe for all participants, it may be worn.
As to religious paraphernalia — no one really wears “artifacts,” do they? — the issue is NOT whether an item of jewelry (or clothing) is “religious” (because there is no useful definition of that term) but whether that item of jewelry that would otherwise be prohibited under the “no jewelry” rule is nevertheless REQUIRED TO BE WORN by a religion. The item must be required by some religious tenet — the Jewish yarmulke, for example, or a Sikh turban, etc. In short, the actual range of “religious items” is VERY narrow.
So, because there is no way for a referee to know definitively what does or does not come under the that definition, any player who seeks to claim a “religious item” exception must apply to his or her state association, which in turn would decide if such was the case and would provide some letter or other documentation that could be given to the referee. In all events, the referee must still determine if, despite all this, the religious item still could not be worn (at least in its present form) because it was dangerous.
