Question Number: 23836

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 8/26/2010

RE: Professional

Ahmed Hakami of NYC, New York USA asks...

Dear Sir/Madam,

A goal was scored in which one of the offense players committed a foul that deserves a red card. The referee approved the goal and sent off the player for what he did during the attack the resulted on a goal.

If I may ask, what would be the rule/law on this?

Here is a 1:30 min video of the incidence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwCB__ks5E8

Thanks for helping.

Regards,

Ahmed

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

It is not clear to me from the video what happened and when.

Assume that while the ball is in play, an attacking player commits a foul against an opponent, not observed by the referee, but observed by the assistant referee, and then a goal appears to have been scored.

The assistant referee would inform the referee what happened and if the referee accepts the information, would call the foul, disallow the goal, show the player the red card, and play would restart with a direct or indirect free kick for the team that was fouled. Law 6 permits the assistant referee to give information; Law 5 permits the referee to act on that advice even after the goal is scored. The assistant referee should get the information to the referee before the kickoff.

If the bad act by the attacker occurred AFTER the goal was scored, it would not affect the goal. The referee could still send off the attacker, but play would restart with a kickoff.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Ahmed
I'm not clear as to what happened here in the video. The assistant referee raises his flag (frame 9) in a way which suggest that he wishes to speak to the referee. I'm not clear for what reason though. But let's say that an attacker scores a goal and the referee has not seen an offence such as violent conduct by the attacking team before the goal was scored. The offence is then brought to attention of the referee by an assistant who informs the referee of what happens then in that case the goal is disallowed, the attacker is sent off for violent conduct and the restart is a direct free kick from where the offence took place.
If the violent conduct happened after a goal is scored then the goal is allowed to stand and the player is sent off for violent conduct. If the VC is committed by a defender then the goal is allowed, the player is dismissed and the restart is a kick off.
If play had restarted with a kick off the referee cannot disallow the goal but he can still dismiss the player for violent conduct.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

At .06 a blue player is on the ground and the ball has not been kicked
.07 ball has been kicked and on the way to the goal
.08 ball almost in net and through this second in stop action, the AR has begun to raise his flag and almost completely up
.09 ball in back of net and AR flag is up
.10 can no longer see AR. Blue player that was on ground is getting up
.13 Blue player up and walking around
.18-.20 referee walking towards left corner
.47 referee has cautioned someone
.50-.55 referee running to his AR
rest of video appears after referee and AR confer, yellow team is pleased which says to me the goal is good.I don't see any red card issued. What my fellow panel members have said sums the situation up nicely

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