Question Number: 24839

Law 6 - Assistant Referee 4/19/2011

RE: High school game High School

C Cook of Midland, GA USA asks...

If an assistant ref calls a penalty in the box, raises his flag,yet the center referee does not acknowledge the side refs flag, A)should the side ref continue to hold the flag up, and eventually the center will see it? B) if the center ref allows the play to continue, should the side ref just lower his flag and shrug that the center never acknowledged the penalty? C) should the fans yell and scream that the side called a penalty with a raised flag and the center NEVER ackowledged the penalty? D) should you send a note trying to figure out if the center ref truly has the option of totally ignoring his side ref?

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

A. If the AR raised his flag to call a foul in the penalty area he is sure the referee did not see and the referee does not acknowledge the flag, the AR should hold it up and do what he needs to do in order to get the attention of the referee. If a goal is scored the AR has to prevent the referee from allowing play to restart even if the AR has to run onto the field to do so. However, if the referee waved the AR down, the AR should lower the flag.The referee should go over this in pregame
B. The AR should NEVER shrug. If the referee sees the flag and signals to the AR that he is allowing play to continue, the AR must lower the flag and continue his duties. He should never display any signs that he doesn't agree with the referee or do anything to undermine the referee's authority.
C. The fans are going to do whatever they want. Sometimes their yelling will get an inattentive referee's attention.
D. Why? The referee is the one in charge not the AR. He may always choose to overrule the AR but should signal at least to the AR and the AR should behave accordingly

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
Unseen flags are nothing new and do happen in games due to the referee's position or being totally focused on play. Waving down flags is also part of the game where the referee has seen the incident and he wants play to continue either through advantage or in his opinion the flag is erroneous.
When the AR sees an incident that he believes is unseen by the referee then the assistant referee should keep his flag raised until it is seen by the referee. Particular advice is given in relation to offside flags.
Usually unseen flags will result in a mirrored flag by the other AR or shouts from players/coaches etc which will alert the referee to the flag and he will then deal with it.
The referee is in total charge of the game and he makes all decisions in relation to the game.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Referees commonly use a silent signal to 'wave down' a flag. The signal is how the assistant referee knows whether the referee has missed the flag or has overruled it. Most spectators and players would not see the signal.

I hate it when I miss a flag. It usually means that I was not in a position to see both play and the assistant referee. Sometimes, it simply concerns something that happened behind me. The other assistant referee, however, is trained to raise her flag whenever there is a missed flag on the opposite touchline. Frankly, the shouts of players and coaches often alerts the referee to a missed flag before the other assistant referee can.

A raised flag for a foul almost always involves something that the referee did NOT see. The assistant referee is trained to look first at the referee and determine whether the referee saw what happened - -before raising the flag. The assistant should flag only when the assistant referee judges: (1) the referee didn't see it and (2) the referee would have called if the referee had seen it.

Penalties are usually different. If anything happens that might be called, the attacking team is usually shouting for a penalty kick. If the referee didn't see what happened, the referee will look to the assistant. It would be very unusual for the assistant referee to see and call a penalty kick that even the attacking team did not see. When the attacking team is silent, it is far more common for the assistant referee's missed flag to be for a foul by the attacking team. Such a flag can easily be lowered when there has been a long delay and the defending team has gained full possession of the ball.

A common pregame instruction is that if the assistant referee sees violent conduct that happens behind the referee, to raise the flag, shout the referee's name, scream and do anything necessary to get the referee's attention. No matter how long it takes to get recognized.

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

See Question: 24848