Question Number: 23764

Other 8/11/2010

RE: Adult, Club, High School, College Adult

Steve Jeffrey of Trabuco Canyon, CA USA asks...

At a recent tournament with fields close together I was referee on a B16 game. The referee's whistle on the neighboring field was loud. I often had to yell to the player's that his whistle was 'NOT ME, PLAY ON' and this worked most of the time.

However, on one occasion, in mid-field as two players came together (an event that I deemed not to be a foul), when the neighboring ref blew his whistle, before I could say anything, one of the players stopped and picked up the ball.

I decided that he had been deceived by the other ref's whistle, could not charge him with handling and restarted with a contested drop-ball. I was queried afterward on this decision and and I said that in my opinion the other ref's whistle was an 'outside agent' that had interfered with our game.

What do you say?

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Obviously the neighboring referee's whistle interfered with your game and it would have been unfair to punish the player that picked up the ball. You should not have yelled 'play on' which is reserved for advantage but clearly you were correct to yell something. I always carry 3 whistles with me so I can switch to one with a different sound from a neighboring field. From Advice:

9.2 PLAY THE REFEREE'S WHISTLE
If a whistle is heard as a result of spectator action or of activity on a nearby field and if a player, thinking that play had been stopped by the referee, then illegally handles the ball, the referee should treat this as outside interference and restart with a dropped ball. The referee must nonetheless be aware of the possibility that a player has committed unsporting behavior (pretending unawareness that it was not the referee’'s whistle) and must be prepared to deal properly with this misconduct.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Steve
You made the correct decision. Once the referee decides that the whistle has interfered with play then play should be stopped and the restart is a dropped ball from where play was stopped in this case where the ball was picked up.
As Referee Contarino states referees should carry different pitch whistles to deal with situations like this.

Answer provided by Referee Gene Nagy

Steve, you have made the right decision backed up by Law 18 titled Common Sense. For your information I carry 3 whistles now with different tones. I learned the hard way and this very thing you describe happened to me. Unfortunately in my case a goal was scored by the only player who did not stop for a whistle form an adjoining field and I let the goal stand. Next time try to prevent this situation by talking to the neighboring ref about the whistle PRIOR to the game.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Instead of 'PLAY ON!' I would suggest something like 'Keep playing.' or 'NOT our field - keep going'. If they react before you can say anything, your solution was the correct and fair thing to do.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 23780