Question Number: 21461

Law 8 - Start and Restart of Play 6/2/2009

RE: Competitive Under 14

John Hsu of Chatham, New Jersey USA asks...

This happened in my game last week...

The other teams goalkeeper challenged our attacker and successfully knocked the ball away, but the two players collided. An opposition defender immediately cleared the ball from their end with a long kick, all the way to our end. As our teams center back, I collected the ball a yard or two inside my teams penalty area. I had unchallenged possession of the ball, with only my teammates within at least 20 yards of me. The other teams closest players and the ref were just crossing mid field when the opposing coach and parents began screaming to the ref that their goalkeeper was still down (our attacker had gotten up). The ref saw their keeper down and blew the whistle to stop play.

The ref and opposing coach attended the keeper for several minutes. After the keeper finally walked it off, the ref came to me and asked for the ball. He announced he was going to restart with a drop ball where I had possession, inside my teams box, when play was stopped. The opposing coach immediately yelled for an attacker to challenge for the drop ball, and moved all his attacking players into our box with orders to shoot at any opportunity. I, and my coach, complained to the ref that this was completely unfair and unsportsmanlike. I was in undisputed possession of the ball and readying a counter attack when play was stopped for the purposes of helping the opposing goalkeeper, so they should not be able to take such gross advantage of the stoppage!

The ref said that he had no authority to stop the other team from challenging for the drop ball however they wanted to. Is this true? Couldnt he have ordered the other team off the ball and simply dropped it to me, or failing that, changed the drop site to midfield so as not to disadvantage us?

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Sigh. The fairest thing to do in this instance is to drop the ball back to you, and not to announce it ahead of time! The coach on the other team was being highly unsporting but not in any fashion that the referee has the authority to deal with in the game.

This kind of issue happens most often when it is the goalkeeper who is injured and has possession of the ball. The wise referee will look at any attacker who thinks he's going to get in on the action, and say 'if this was your keeper, would you want the other team involved?' Usually they get it, but if they don't, I'll ask them to move away. I can't make them, but I can drop the ball in such a way that it goes to the team who had uncontested possession.

What I cannot do is move the restart from the location required by the Laws. It has to be where the ball was located.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

The proper restart is a dropped ball where the ball was when play was stopped. The referee should have dropped it to you with no announcement to avoid what the other coach did.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

It actually states in the laws
LAW 8 ? THE START AND RESTART OF PLAY
Dropped Ball
Any player may challenge for the ball (including the goalkeeper). There is no minimum or maximum number of players required to contest a dropped ball.
The referee cannot decide who may or may not contest a dropped ball.

So in law the coach is 100% correct!

HOWEVER note the part about there is no min or max?
That allows a referee to drop the ball without the opposition present if he so chose.

I have grave misgivings as to the location of the drop ball. If the referee waited until you were up field and THEN decided the keeper was injured seriously enough to stop play then the restart is where you were with the ball.
It is in fact a misapplication of law to not go to somewhere near the correct area. If the opposition had scored back inside your penalty area you could protest the outcome with a good chance of success.

Often the opposition gracefully acknowledges the fair thing is to return the ball and in fact they take the drop ball uncontested but kick it back to your keeper. Thus you get the ball but your location to start the attack kind of sucks.

Cheers