Question Number: 14510

Law 5 - The Referee 11/27/2006

RE: Rec Under 9

Dan R. of Wernersville, PA USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 14482

More info for my original post at http://www.AskTheRef.com/myAnswer/Question/14459/

First, thanks for your original responses, they were enlightening and very helpful.

I was the coach and not the Ref, not sure if I made that point or not.

I was taught by the refs in my league that if they do not stop play when a player is down then it is because it would be advantageous to the injured player's team. Some of the refs have even stopped the game to instruct the parents if they complain too much. There may be some other circumstances that the ref takes into consideration to stop the play even if it would be advantageous, but I am not aware of them.

The player was down for around 5 seconds before the ball went into the goal.

I did not care if the goal was awarded or not because it would not have mattered in the game, but what I am concerned about now is my league's interpretation of some rule that allows the ref to continue play when a player is injured.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

I am appalled that your league would instruct referees to ignore a potentially seriously injured player for ANY reason, and you may quote me. Your referees are not being instructed properly. Allowing play when a player is injured should have nothing to do with advantage. The referee is empowered to allow play to continue if, in his/her opinion, the player is NOT seriously injured. When you see an 8 or 9 year old take a ball to the face and go down, you would have to be out of your ever loving mind to allow play to continue. Any referee doing youth games should be instructed by your league and referee assignor to worry about SAFETY first, second, and third. Your league needs to do some serious rethinking. I'm assuming, and may be incorrectly, that your referees working U Little games are themselves young and/or inexperienced. If your leagues tells them to allow play to continue if there's an advantage to it, these referees are being put in a terrible position as they haven't the knowledge or maturity needed to make those kinds of decisions. When I'm mentoring to young referees the vert FIRST thing I tell them is to consider almost all injuries as being serious with the younger kids and stop play asap. Who cares if you're wrong and the player wasn't seriously injuried? Better to always err on the side of caution. I suspect your league is tired of parents complaining at higher levels when play IS allowed to be continued and they've over reacted by trying to standardize this which is a HUGE mistake.
Sorry to go on and on but player safety is VERY important to all of us on this site and it infuriates me when leagues go about making play more unsafe.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

The seriousness of a knock is inversely proportional to the age of the player -- when there are no obvious signs. A professional with a femur sticking out of his thigh is injured just as seriously as a 5 year old standing motionless crying. A professional holding his ankle after being bumped off the ball with a fair charge is injured as much as a 5 year old at the touchline getting his nose blown by mom. What I'm attempting to say is this: If a child takes a knock and stops he IS injured until we prove other wise, stop and look. We would rather not break players and the youngest are more easily broken, even though they seem to mend more rapidly than us old gummers. They respond more to compassion than professionals do to the magic water in the little bottles. There is little compassion shown to a player when we allow play to continue around him and his tears.

Stop everything and see what's wrong. Older, go ahead, run by and ask if he needs assistance, if he does he'll say so. If he can't answer he needs help -- U Little's always get help without asking right up to the time they start simulation of injuries to stop play. There we can do something else...

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

Laws of the game are clear. Severly injured = stop game, slightly injured = allow play to continue. This is what FIFA has mandated. I agree and am in shock that any league would over ride this.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Advantage has ZERO nada nothing to with injury !
if a player down is not seriously hurt play can be allowed to continue be the ball in the opponent's possession or his teammate's possession! This is a discrestionary call made by the refereee based on what he witnessed, the reaction or non reaction of the player, the age of that player and how the injury occurred. The need to stop play is ONLY the need to safely asses the child's welfare nothing else is important. If a player is a wee bit hurt or faking an injury then you can wave him up and in the later case show a yellow card and caution for the USB action of deciet . I agree completely with my colleagues although age is important to consider, the wellfare of all at any age takes precedent over anything else! Cheers

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

See Question: 14523