Question Number: 13626

Law 8 - Start and Restart of Play 8/31/2006

RE: Rec Under 12

Frank of Omaha, NE USA asks...

I am a coach of an U11B rec team and a ref made an incorrect offside call, taking away our advantage. I immediately brought to his attention the opposing player hanging out by the goalie. His correction was to "drop" the ball onto the field between two players. This had the effect of giving the opposing team a chance to recover and an equal opportunity to capture the ball.
My question is what is the proper restart when the ref realizes he has made such an error?
Thank you.

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

Unfortunatly for you the referee was correct in allowing the drop ball. If play is stopped for anything not mentioned in laws such as "a bad call", the match restarts with a drop ball. This referee needs to make certain the it truly is offside before blowing the whistle. I always look back for other possible players before calling offside.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

A dropped ball is used to restart the game when no other restart is prescribed by the Laws of the Game. This is one of those circumstances. If the referee realaizes he has inadvertently blown the whistle which is basically what he did here, the restart is a dropped ball. This is different than, say, he awards a direct free kick for the opponents but then realizes he should have awarded it to your team. All this being said, I'd have a few questions, were there no ARs? Did the referee make the offside call or did the AR? Was the opponent you pointed out at the goal line at the moment the ball was played or touched by your attacker or was he there when your player that got called for offside collect it? I bring all this up as it's rare that a referee will change a call based on what a coach says. In fact, I'm suprised he paid any attention to you even if you were correct. Moreover, it's not your place to question the referee's decision. If, however, he did this he could have dropped the ball quickly to your team. There is no requirement that ANY players have to participate in a dropped ball much less one from each team.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Who gave you the right to bring anything to the referee's attention coach? There I was thinking the referee's decisions regarding facts connected with play were final. And how sad I actually believed the International FA Board when they wrote: A team official may convey tactical instructions to the players during the match and he must return to his position after giving these instructions. All officials must remain within the confines of the technical area, where such an area is provided, and they must behave in a responsible manner.

Bad me,

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

See Question: 13644