Question Number: 25566

Law 10 - Method of Scoring 10/8/2011

RE: Competitive - low level Adult

Tom Lane of Weymouth, Dorset England asks...

Hi!
At our football (soccer) game today, the referee made a decision which astounded me and cannot be correct based on the Laws Of Association Football.
There was a short tussle on the touchline and the other team's player thought he was fouled. When no whistle came, he shouted 'F*** Off Ref!' Everyone paused for a moment, assuming the ref would stop play. A moment later, their player continued with the ball, crossed it and they scored. The ref gave the goal and then called the player over and booked him for dissent! I mentioned to the ref that if he books the player (for dissent) then he can't give the goal and must give us a free kick from where the dissent took place. The ref replied that he let play continue ('as you see all the time in the premiership'!!) and then booked the player at the next stoppage (after the goal). I said that he can't apply the advantage rule to benefit the offending team! He told me to go away and that he wouldn't discuss it any further.
Please please tell me that I'm correct and that he 'cannot' allow play to continue, allow the goal but then book their player!
Many Thanks!

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Upon advice of my fellow panel members, I am rewriting my answer. I read the question wrong. I had thought it originally involved advantage after misconduct.

You are correct, there is no reason for the ref to allow play to continue when it will benefit the team that has committed an offense, whether that be a foul or misconduct.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Law 10, The Method of Scoring, states:

'A goal is scored when the whole of the ball passes over the goal lin, between the goal posts and under the crossbar, provided that no infringement of the Laws Of The Game has been committed previously by the team scoring the goal'

As dissent is misconduct, that player has infringed Law 12, therefore the referee cannot allow that team to score a goal immediately following on from that. Unfortunately, doing so is incorrect in law.

While the referee doesn't have to immediately stop play for dissent, the referee should only take that option if it would disadvantage the opposing team.

There is no reason whatsoever to allow play to continue if it's the teammate of the player dissenting who gets the ball and play should have been stopped immediately to deal with the offending player.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Tom
You are 100% correct. The referee here has made an error as the correct decision was to stop play, caution the player and restart with an indirect free kick from where the offence took place. Most referees would take a very dim view of this shout and would not allow play to continue to that player's team advantage??
If he wants to be like the PL then he allows play to continue with no sanction taken as it is probably not heard. The PL refs have to contend with perhaps 50,000 shouting fans and he does not have the access to video or lip reading that we all have.
The only possible way that a caution can be issued here is that advantage was played to the 'dissenter' opponents, play continues for a short period and the ball is turned over resulting in a goal to the dissenter's team. In that case a caution can still be issued. Not a good idea though

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Play should have stopped immediately. This is NOT dissent. It's clearly offensive and the bugger should have been sent off. In any event, awarding the goal is just nuts