Question Number: 19077

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 5/13/2008

RE: Competative Under 17

Al Sinopoli of Covington, LA USA asks...

Blue team is on a fast break attack. 0-0 game in the second half. While just outside the penalty area, the attacker is fouled (pushed hard) by the Red defender, but manages to stay up. However, the ball gets a bit away from the attacker as a result of the push and the Red team keeper now charges out to get the ball (the ball is now inside the penalty area). The AR raises his flag to signal the foul. However, before the referee either whistles or declares advantage, the blue attacker goes into a slide to try and play the ball, which the red keeper is now clearly much closer to. The attacker keeps his cleats down (mostly) but slides right into the keeper who has the ball. The slide by the blue attacker did start just prior to the red keeper grabbing the ball, but the attacker's feet never contacted anything but the keeper.

Well the Red keeper is hurt, the ARs flag is up, the Coaches are shouting at each other about how their players won't be able to walk off the field when this is over. The center and the AR confer and decided that the slide was a 50/50 ball (no foul on the slide) and the foul on blue was not an advantage (or was not whistled in time) and award a direct kick to blue outside the penalty area. Of course, the keeper is carried off the field with a bruised arm.

Since I was the other AR, I just kept my eyes open and the other players off the field.

Question - if the center ref had ruled advantage (or just couldn't blow the whistle in time), and then after the slide cautioned the blue attacker for a reckless slide, could he still have awarded blue the direct kick for the original foul since advantage never developed? My thoughts are yes he could have, but I'm not 100% clear.

As a side note, the center told me before the re-start he was going to add 2 minutes to the half for this stoppage, and I quietly commented to him a "are you sure you want to do that?", given the bad sentiment. 3 yellows and a red card later, the game ended 1-0.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

It appears that either there was no advantage situation, or if there was it quickly disappeared because the keeper was able to get near to the ball. So the restart for the original foul outside the penalty area would be correct. Where was the center on this play? Could he see it? Why did the AR have to signal it?

Thus the next challenge when the keeper got hurt occured after the ball was out of play. There could be no foul, only misconduct.

Carried off the field for a bruised arm? That sounds overly dramatic.

It seems that the hard push by the defender might warrant a yellow card for a reckless foul, or could be SFP and red. I also question the reasoning that a 50/50 chance for the ball excuses a player from coming in with cleats "mostly" down. The words used indicate to me that this also should have been at least a caution.

Perhaps if both players had been cautioned, it would have done a lot to calm the inflamed feelings on both sides.

And why would you not want to give the players all the time they are entitled to? Especially when it is a one-goal margin game. We don't make rulings to make it easier on ourselves; we abide by the Laws to make the game as safe, fair and enjoyable for the players as possible. Not giving the team that was behind the full amount of time to stage a comeback goal cheats them out of a possible tie game.

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Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

I agree with Ref Voshol. Cleats "mostly down" is the same as cleats "partially up". This occurred after the initial foul so the ball was out of play and should have resulted in a caution by your description.

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