Question Number: 21636

Law 5 - The Referee 7/9/2009

RE: Select Under 18

Erik of Arlington, TX USA asks...

How long does a referee have to change his mind on a foul call?

I fully admit I was in an offside position, a step behind the defender, when the ball was played by my teammate. The ball passed in the air, I had to run back to the ball, past the defender, in an attempt to play it.

The thug defender tried to win the ball in the air, by jumping through me and over my back, knocking me to the ground, and wasn't even able to make contact with the ball.

The assistant raised his flag, and the referee whistled a foul against the defense.

I quickly placed the ball at the spot of the foul while the defense was still trying to setup and opted for a quick restart. I passed the ball to an open teammate. The referee allowed the restart to continue as the ball was properly place. My teammate ended up putting the ball in the back of the net.

The referee signaled the goal was scored, then noticed the assistant still had his flag up in the air. After a conference, he disallowed the goal because of the offsides.

I yelled in a not so nice way to the referee that he needs to remove his head from his backside, and was promptly shown the red card! That is rather harsh.

Offside occured when the ball was played. This would have been prior to the foul by the defense. The play had already been legally restarted after the foul, how can the referee change his mind and not allow the goal?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The referee allowed play to restart incorrectly because he didn't receive the correct information from the AR. He then again fails to communicate with the AR, as he signals a goal before looking to see if there was a problem - the offside.

Law 5 says, 'The referee may only change a decision on realising that it is incorrect or, at his discretion, on the advice of an assistant referee or the fourth official, provided that he has not restarted play or terminated the match.' Unfortunately he did restart play, so he lost his opportunity to make the correct call. While the result was correct - your goal shouldn't have counted - the process of getting there was wrong.

As for your comment, yes that was harsh. While the referee wasn't paying proper attention to what was going on and messed up, you have no business insulting and abusing him that way. The red card for offensive, insulting and abusive language was well deserved.

Edit: After reading Ref Wickham's answer, I see one very important word in your description - "still" - the AR **still** had his flag up. Indeed, that provides an exception so that the referee could change the decision, based on the input from the AR that he finally recognized. Doesn't excuse the miscommunication earlier, which this ref has to work on. But makes your outburst even less appropriate.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

The general rule is that the referee cannot change a decision after play has restarted. The general rule has two exceptions: first, if the players put the ball into play but it was the referee's intention that play be held up (for example, to caution a player), the referee can stop play and take the intended action. The second exception is when the assistant referee saw something the referee did not, and kept the flag up. This allows the referee to stop play and act on the information from the assistant referee.

Answer provided by Referee Gene Nagy

The assistant referee by holding the flag through all this has given the referee new information so the referee may waive off the goal and give the original offside. The referee did not make a mistake on the send off. You may think it was harsh but I hope you will get a few games suspension and hopefully a fine to boot. It would be an ugly world indeed if we handled conflict like you did. Bad boy!

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

If the referee accepts the information the AR now gives him and agrees with the offside, then play stopped at that point and the goal is called back.
You think it's harsh to get a red card for telling the referee he has his head up his butt? You must be kidding! You not only deserved the red card but at least a 3 game suspension

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

See Question: 21640

See Question: 21641