Question Number: 14663

Law 8 - Start and Restart of Play 1/4/2007

RE: Recreation Under 12

Steve of Vero Beach, FL USA asks...

I would like your opinion on a situation I had this Fall in a U12 girls rec game.

Attacker ran on the ball inside the PA. Defender came over to cover and played 10ft off the ball between attacker and goal. Attacker launches a bullet shot that hits the defender (I could not tell if it was her face or chest from my angle).

The defender goes down and players from both teams run to the downed defender while the ball rolled near but not over the goal line (still in play).

I blew the whistle to stop play (which the players had already done by running to the downed player).

After the coach attended to the defender and she was substituted for, I restarted play with a drop ball, where the ball came to rest inside the PA (not GA). I called the attacker closest to me to take the drop and waived off the defenders. I announced that the ball is live when it hits the ground and cannot be touched until it hits the ground.

Calling only the attacker to the drop ball raised some eyebrows, but this is what we were taught in our referee class because of Spirit of the game.

A.) Was stopping the game the right call or should I have had the players play on?

B.) Was my one-sided restart the correct procedure?

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

A. That is a matter of opinion. Laws of the game instruct us to stop play only if the player is severely injured. If that was your opinion, kudos to you. The fact that some players stopped and tended to the wounded player may have weighed into your decision as to whether or not the injury was serious or not, but you do not have to stop play simply because other players attended to him. B. The correct restart here is a drop ball. Per Laws of the Game both teams can participate in the drop ball. Some referees do what you did in this situation, but both teams have a right to the drop ball. What you could of done to help sell the decision better is talk to the defending team and remind them what is right in the spirit of the game. Hoepfully they will agree with you on this without protest.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

A) What is "serious" depends on the level of the game. For u-littles a boo-boo is serious. For the U15B barbarians it's a very different scale. I don't know what the level of play for U12G rec is in your area, but I suspect you were correct to consider a hard shot from 10 feet could have resulted in a serious injury, at least serious hurt to the player.

B) The dropped ball is the correct restart. As Ref Mueller has said, the referee can *convince* the players to allow one team to take it unimpeded, but he cannot *force* them to do so. With a close-in restart like this, there is an alternate. Try to convince the defense to take the dropped ball and kick it back to the attackers. You can say something like, "#7, come here please. We stopped play to deal with your keeper while they had the ball. The fair thing would be to let them have the ball again, right? So what I would like you to do is kick nicely it to one of those 3 out there." - and point toward the opponents standing a few yards outside the PA.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Stopping the game at this age and skill level was absolutely the correct thing to do! Kudos to you for recognizing player safety is our main job. I have to disagree with Ref Voshall. At U12 Rec, you will not be able to get the players to understand this concept. You botched the restart but, apparently, you were taught improperly at your training (gee, what a suprise!). You NEVER,EVER announce only one team can participate at a dropped ball. WHile it is true no one even needs to participate, you can't openly forbid a team from taking part. What you should have done is quickly drop the ball to an attacker unless this gave a hugely unfair advantage that didn't exist before the injury, or drop it to both teams. You are not protected by Law if you forbid a team to play a dropped ball.

Answer provided by Referee Nathan Lacy

I agree with my colleagues in that you were absolutely right in stopping play - especially when the focus of many of the players became the potentially injured player and the game had been significatly diverted anyway. Especially at this level erring on the side of player safety is the thing to do and is very much appreciated by players, parents, and coaches. I also agree that the restart was incorrect as noted above. To achieve this kind of restart with the "spirit of the game" in mind recognize that it is seldom the referee that manages this. Usually, the players themselves will manage such a dropped ball to where only one player is taking it and then clearly plays it to the opponent. I have, as the referee, helped clarify that a team will be doing this (playiing it back to the opponent) on the restart to help relax the other team so that the spirit of sportsmanship can be realized BUT not to prevent a player from participating. Also recognize that this type of sportsmanship usually occurs only after a team has clearly played the ball "out" or "away" because of the injury and they are allowing the game to stop in a "normal way" so that the injured player can be attended. With this sportsmanship having been showed by the opponent of the injured player the sporting thing to do, of course, is return the ball to the other team's possession - but again this is pretty much something the players do themselves and not us as referees. All the best,