Question Number: 14177

Law 8 - Start and Restart of Play 10/17/2006

RE: REC Adult

Miguel Rios of New York, NEW YORK USA asks...

I play for a small league that follows Fifa's offical rules, last week the ref blow the Whistle to call a foul. So most of my defense stop to review the foul called , but the other team countine to play the ball and scored.There was a 5 second difference between the whistle and the goal.So the ref allowed the goal. But most of the players on the sidelines from both teams say that is shouldn't have counted and should have been a direct kick. The incident(foul) occur between midfield and outside the penatly box.The score till that point was 1-1.My question is since the league is following Fifa rules, whats the call.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Miguel, once the referee blows the whistle play stops. The only possible explanation I could come up with is you heard a whistle from an adjacent field. I have no other reeason why the referee would allow play to continue. The other thing is, did the referee award a free kick and the attackers took it quickly? That would mean play did stop and restarted quickly

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

Once the referee blows the whistle for a foul the team that gets the kick may kick it as quickly as they want. The only thing is that the ball must be stationary when they kick it from the spot of the foul. If this is what they did and your defenders were arguing or debating the call, then he/she was correct in allowing the goal.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

The ball is out of play when:

it has wholly crossed the goal line or touch line, whether on the ground or in the air

play has been stopped by the referee.

The referee stopped things when he signaled with the whistle. If there was a restart of play after the foul given then your side, by standing around arguing, they just gave up a goal didn't they?
If the referee allowed the goal without a proper restart then he didn't apply the Law correctly and the match may be protested based on a misapplication of Law.

Regards,