Question Number: 19881

Law 6 - Assistant Referee 9/4/2008

RE: Competitive Adult

Nicholas Broderick of St. John's, Newfoundland Canada asks...

This question is pointed towards the mechanics used as an AR in the following situation rather than the Laws that apply to it:

Two attacking players are on a break towards their opponent's goal, one of them dribbling it upfield. They are 40 yards from the goal with only the goalkeeper to beat and the nearest defender 10 yards behind them and never able to catch up (an obvious goalscoring opportunity). Because of the quick break the referee is caught about 25 yards behind the play, so as the AR chasing the play you know you'll be needed for help concerning fouls if they occur. The attacker with the ball reaches 25 yards outside the goal when the goalkeeper closes in on him to close the angle. Two things happen:
1. The ball is played by the attacking player, and at that moment his teammate is ahead of the ball (offside position).
2. The ball, before finding its way to the feet of the attacking teammate, is handled by the outstretched arm of the goalkeeper outside of his penalty area (deliberately handles the ball). Assume that the referee has not seen this himself.
The ball deflects off the goalkeeper's arm and to the feet of the attacker with an open goal to relish.
The restart is easy: DFK to the attackers (no advantage since Law 10 denies them any goal because of the offside offense) and a sending-off for the goalkeeper for DOGSO by handling. But I can't conceive of an ideal way to communicate this as an AR using standard mechanics (FIFA's ILOTG & GFR).
If I raise the flag in my right arm with agitation (FIFA standard for foul committed by the defending team) the referee will see the ball at the feet of the attacking team and very likely call for advantage. In that moment of confusion, the attacker may put the ball into the open net, and then we have to explain to the attackers why we decided to first allow play to continue but now have decided to punish the original offense after the ball is in the goal. If the attacker misses the open goal, we have to explain to the defending team why the advantage clause was used but now are punishing the original offense after he missed a gift for the football gods through his own fault.
If I raise my flag in my right hand without agitation, I'm now signaling for an offside offense. (This is how it would be read by any reasonable referee in this situation.) Although I'm really trying to say 'Stop! Let's talk about this before we do anything stupid!' my colleague will read 'Affirmative on the offside offense, IFK out!'. Reading this as a normal offside situation, he may give the IFK sign for the offside offense (before I indicate near, middle or far if he's hasty) then discover we really need to have a DFK in. Changing decisions after already having made one is never pretty, especially now that the referee will discover he now has to send off the goalkeeper after he and everyone else thought the free kick was outbound for offside.
So I ask you , how would you deal with this situation as an AR? Where situations like these are not covered in FIFA's ILOTG & GFR in terms of mechanics, are these special situations covered in pre-game discussions where you are the referee? Do you ask about situations like these during the pre-game discussion if you're an AR? I thought of a possible answer while typing this question: perhaps you could instruct your ARs that they may use their discretion and give an agitated right-handed flag even when the attacking team has an advantage, trusting that play must be stopped and the advantage cannot be applied (or should not in cases of violent conduct). Do you ever trust your ARs with this responsibility? Or would you rather let things run their course as they would with standard mechanics and sort everything out after the fact, and find out just how much you enjoy refereeing?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

If the AR sees a situation where there is advantage, he would not make any signal. Thus the fact that there is a foul signal should indicate to the referee that the foul should be called; there is no advantage.

In practice and at speed, this might be difficult to parse and get it correct. You are correct, it is possible that the ref would miss the offsidedness of the other attacker and signal an advantage - although in a 2-on-1 situation a referee would be anticipating the possibility of offside. If the ref allows play to continue, it has to be sorted out and the goal disallowed. It will be the referee, not the AR, who has to offer abject apologies to the team who thought they had just scored a goal. Probably the go-ahead goal with only minutes left in the game, too.

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

See Question: 19897

See Question: 19952