Question Number: 26712

Law 8 - Start and Restart of Play 9/3/2012

RE: all Adult

M Cherry of Milton, Ont Canada asks...

In a situation where a referee has stopped play to administer cautions to a member from each team what would be the restart

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The restart would be determined by who did what first. Whoever started it, the other side gets the free kick. It would be a direct free kick (or penalty kick) if it was one of the 10 direct free kick fouls listed in Law 12. Else it would be an indirect free kick for stopping play solely for misconduct.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
It depends on which offence happened first and the reason play was stopped as per the Laws. So if Blue player commits an offence and then there is retaliation / afters by Red Player the free kick is awarded to the Red team from where the first offence took place
If both players are misbehaving with no obvious foul the referee might allow play to continue to the next natural stoppage and then deal with it. If the referee stops play to deal with two opponents who are both 'offending' the Laws of the Game with no obvious first foul or in equity it would be unfair to punish one team with an award of a free kick then the restart is a dropped ball. The Laws state if play has not otherwise been stopped for another reason, or if an injury suffered by a player is not the result of a breach of the Laws of the Game, the referee must restart play with a dropped ball from the position of the ball when play was stopped or that when more than one offence occurring at the same time and I quote
# Offences committed by players from different teams:
? the referee must stop play and restart it with a dropped ball from the position of the ball at the time of the stoppage.
In a recent game I had two players shouldering each other after the ball had gone and generally giving each other verbals. I thought it might escalate into something more so I stopped the game and spoke to both players. I could have cautioned both but I decided not to. As there was no obvious first foul to punish and both were 'guilty' of an offence I restarted with a dropped ball from where play was stopped. The DB was not contested and the team in possession got the ball back. Had I cautioned both the restart would still have been a dropped ball.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

If both are players, the restart is based on the first foul (DFK or IFK to the opponents) or IFK for the first act of misconduct that is not a foul.

As a practical matter, the referee team may not know who committed the first one. IMO, the referee should decide that one of them was first. Referees who "can't decide" and use a dropped ball can lose match control because the players believe them indecisive.

When faced with that situation, my usual practice is to 'decide' that the attacking team committed the first one. The advantage of a restart going out is that the players are running away and not so close to each other. A restart coming in may be packed with players who are eager to reignite whatever sparks I'm trying to extinguish.

Note: if the scrum is between a player and a substitute, the restart is based on a substitute on the field. The restart will be an IFK to the player's team where the ball was located when play was stopped.