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LAWS OF THE GAME: ASK THE REFEREE

In response to various questions, the following are responses from the National Referee Program Office:

PROPER AND IMPROPER USE OF THE BODY

Question:
U14G game. Two opponents are aggressively pursuing a 50/50 ball in the open field. Blue arrives at the ball an instant before yellow. Blue's first action, with the ball now directly at her feet, is to shield the ball from the fast approaching Yellow player by moving her body sideways directly into the path of the oncoming Yellow player. Blue player has a more woman-like body. She's at least a foot taller than Yellow and is widest at the hips. The Yellow player, with a more girl-like body, goes flying over the hip of the Blue player. In my judgment since Blue arrived at the ball first (albeit only by an instant) and since she was clearly within playing distance of the ball, her act of shielding the ball was legal. In my opinion, the fact that Yellow went flying through the air was the result of her own carelessness. Accordingly, I did not whistle and allowed play to continue.

First, based on these facts was that the correct call?

Second, it is also my opinion that Blue knew that her act of shielding the ball would cause a violent collision between the two and that the smaller girl would be more adversely affected by such a collision. (These were two talented, aggressive players, probably the best on each team, who had been going at each other for some time prior to the collision.) Could Blue ever be called for a foul in this situation? If so, what do I look for to determine a foul occurred?

Answer:
A player who is within playing distance of the ball -- as determined by the referee, not the player -- is permitted to interpose her body between the ball and the opponent. The fact that she is larger makes absolutely no difference. If she chose to put her hips in a particular position before the opponent arrived, life is hard for the opponent. Unless you are absolutely certain that the shielding player has physically moved her hip during the actual contact, thus using a part of her body for a purpose that is not permitted -- charges have to be shoulder to shoulder, even for women -- then there has been no foul here.

COPING WITH "INJURED" PLAYERS

Question:
I had this in a game I did the other night. The keeper stops a shot and gets ready to release it but I told her to hold on for one second because a player on the other team seemed to be injured. The player said she was fine so I told the goalie to play on without blowing my whistle. The goalie ran to the line and carried the ball past the penalty area before she released the ball. I then blew my whistle for the first time and awarded the other team an Indirect Free Kick for improper clearing of the ball by the keeper. I was in a two-man system and the other official (who is my father) felt the call should have been a hand ball and a direct free kick to restart. We settled on my interpretation of the rules and the kick taken was an IFK. The kick actually went off the goalie's fingertips and went in the goal. Since it went off the goalie's fingers the indirect free kick was satisfied, so I got lucky with the call since both direct and indirect kicks were satisfied. However, what would the correct call be so I can make the right call next time?

Answer:
Our opinion is that your father was technically correct: The restart, if you stopped the game for this extremely trifling infringement, should have been a direct free kick. (There is, by the way, no such infringement as "improperly clearing the ball.") You can already see where this answer is going. You interfered with the goalkeeper's release of the ball and then, when she committed a TRIFLING infringement of the Law, you punished her and even allowed a goal to be scored against her team.

Lesson to be learned from this: If you cannot tell immediately that a player is truly injured, there is no need to delay play. Instead, you should let the goalkeeper clear the ball from the penalty area and only then stop play, if you must, to check the possibly injured player. If you do otherwise, you have then already determined that the player is injured and should stop play immediately. And that means that the restart will be inside the penalty area through no fault of the defending team. It's a matter of good management and common sense for referees to try not to disadvantage unfairly the team that has not committed any infringement.

Then, of course, there is always the fact that you were officiating in a two-referee game, something to be avoided by referees registered with the U. S. Soccer Federation, as the dual system of control is not in accordance with the Laws of the Game or the policies of the Federation.

OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE; MAKING DECISIONS

Question:
I actually have two questions:
1- We just recently had a game where the line ref raised his flag for an offside on our player and rightfully so; the middle ref did not see it until after the person who was offside had an accidental collision with a player from the other team, so no call was made. Once the ref saw that the line ref was holding his flag up for offsides; he blew the whistle. As the ref was giving the other team a kick for the offsides, their coach ran onto the field and started arguing in the ref's face for a reason I do not know. At that time the ref tossed the coach, who walked off the field. Once the coach was off the field, a parent of that team came onto the field and did the same thing. The ref was going to give their team a kick because of offsides, but instead gave our team a kick because of the parent being on the field. Was this the correct decision?

2- If any member of a team physically harms a player of the opposite team -- by clawing them in the arms or scratching whenever they had a chance -- is a player allowed to let the ref know this is going on, especially if it is leaving visible marks on the player?

Answer:
1. More inventive refereeing. Once the referee has stopped play for an infringement (in this case the offside), the restart may not be changed, no matter what happens. The coach was expelled for behaving irresponsibly and so was the parent who took his place. While that is behavior that must be included in the referee's match report, it in no way changes the restart. Correct restart is an indirect free kick against your team for the offsides call.

2. Well, the player can certainly complain, but the referee cannot act solely on the basis of whatever a player says without corroboration from the referee's own observation or observation by an assistant referee (or fourth official). But if the referee and assistant referees were actually watching the game there would be no need for it, would there? In any event, the player should not retaliate, as that might lead to his or her dismissal (red card).

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