Question Number: 27766

Law 8 - Start and Restart of Play 9/16/2013

RE: Under 13

Kim of Martinsville, Va USA asks...

A throw in was not acknowledged by the ref on the field, the side judge signaled about 4 times but he never saw her and she eventually put her flag down and play continued. Should she continue to keep her flag up until he acknowledged her or was she correct to put her flag down? Also the other team gained possession of ball when it should have been our team's throw in.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Kim
When the ball goes out of play it is imperative that play should be stopped. It reads to me like the AR made every effort to get the referee's attention but failed. When play continues for a significant period of time with no significant incident such as a goal, penalty kick, attacking free kick etc. the best decision can be to simply allow play to continue. If there has been another restart then there is no issue as the referee cannot go back.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The assistant should make every effort to get the referee to stop play, including calling out to him if necessary.

But if the ref continues to ignore the assistant (and shame on him, there should be regular eye contact) - there's nothing that can be done. After some elapsed time, the AR should just give up.

And once the referee restarts play in any way, we can't go back to the missed throw-in.