Question Number: 23867

Law 8 - Start and Restart of Play 9/2/2010

RE: Adult

brian of shannon , co clare ireland asks...

This question is a follow up to question 23852

i played in a match recently where the ref refused to do a coin toss and gave the home team the advantage of playing down a significant hill with the wind and told us that was his decision and to just get on with it,what recourse would our team have?

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Law 8 (the start of the game) requires:

'A coin is tossed and the team that wins the toss decides which goal it will attack in the first half of the match. The other team takes the kick-off to start the match. The team that wins the toss takes the kick-off to start the second half of the match. In the second half of the match, the teams change ends and attack the opposite goals.'

Unless the rules of competition provide differently (and outside the laws), the winner of the coin toss should have decided which side to attack.

As a practical matter, since each team plays one-half on each side, the impact of going downhill in the second half rather than the first half should be nominal. But, if the rules of competition provide for a protest if the referee fails to properly apply the laws, the team's recourse is to protest.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

None, at the field at the time, unless the referee can be made to listen to reason (unlikely).

Short of that, a protest is the only avenue and/or talking to the referee assignor and explaining what happened.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

I was at one tournament where at my first game I was about to call captains out for a coin toss. My AR (who had reffed a previous game) said, 'We haven't been bothering. All kickoffs go that way [point].' OK, made sense - it saved time, it saved the refs from forgetting which way it goes in multiple games, and if the teams didn't know about it, whichever end of the field they warmed up on is just as random as a coin toss.

So pragmatic, but totally incorrect.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Brian
Totally incorrect in Law and it should not happen. In fact I have never ever heard of it happening. I have seen situations where the ref has forgot to bring a coin and he uses another method such as guessing which hand the whistle is in to decide who should have choose ends.
The recourse is really a matter for the team based on the circumstances. It could be a protest or indeed deciding not to play until the toss is made.