Question Number: 28404

Law 5 - The Referee 5/8/2014

RE: High school state tournament Adult

steve of Hendersonville, Tn US asks...

Corner kick taken and resulted in a score. Center ref awards the goal. Defending players argue that one of their players was on the ground and injured prior to the kick being taken. Center ref doesn't consult AR but walks over to discuss the play with the defending team coach who is pleading that play should have been stopped for the injury. By this time, ball is already placed at midfield to restart play. Then ref motions to disallow goal. Instructs teams to retake the corner kick.
Disallowed goal changes outcome of the game.

Thoughts?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Steve
Very poor mechanics and decision here. If the player was down injured in the penalty area then the referee should have dealt with that before the corner kick was taken. Now a number of things could have happened here. Was the player injured before the kick? Did the player go down as a result of the play? Did the player go down after the goal was scored? Was it a serious injury?
In my opinion the referee should have spoken with the AR to ascertain the facts not the coach.
As he allowed play to restart at the corner kick then one assumes it was not a serious injury that could have been brought to his attention by teammates or coaching staff. As play had restarted correctly then the goal should have been allowed and the injured player dealt with before the kick off. If that was not the case then there would be nothing to stop a team having a player lay down on every corner kick, free kick and then plead an injury situation.
Your question does not outline what was said by the coach and whether the discussion was on the rules or on the referee's non handling of the injury. The referee may have made a mistake by not seeing the injured player on the ground but solving that with another error is not the way to deal with it.
Unfortunately in the society we live in dealing with injury situations has become a problem for the game and ultimately for referees.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Steve,

There's a few things here to address.

-A referee can change a decision provided play has not restarted. That means a referee can disallow a goal, even after initially awarding it. If the ball was not legally put into play then he can order that restart taken.

-Was the ball legally put into play? While conventionally a referee would not allow a restart to occur if a player is injured, the laws don't explicitly state that the referee must attend an injury at the next stoppage (or at that stoppage, should the player claim injury at a stoppage). The laws state that the referee may allow play to continue until the ball is out of play if a player is only slightly injured. While this may imply the referee is to attend an injury at the next stoppage, I don't believe this clearly means that allowing a restart to occur while a player is down injured is in breach of the laws. If so, then the corner kick was taken legally, which means there's no reason to disallow the goal.

Having dealt with the question of whether the corner is allowed to take place, we have the issue of whether a goal can be scored while a defender is down injured. It may; play should only be stopped for a serious injury.

I find it peculiar that the referee consulted with the coach, not the AR; this is improper.

Generally speaking the referee shouldn't overturn a goal based on the word of the defence (or whichever team benefits from the decision) - the defending coach is unlikely to say 'he was injured, but that doesn't matter, the goal should stand'. If the referee didn't see the injured player then that suggests to me he was out of the way and play wasn't affected anyway.

It sounds to me, from your description of this peculiar incident, that the referee handled the situation poorly leading to an incorrect decision.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

If it happened as you describe, the team should consider a protest.
An otherwise valid goal was scored while the ball was in play. The assistant referee's information was that there was an injured player - but, this is not a foul or misconduct. While the AR may have been right that the referee should have stopped player for the injury, the referee never did so.

I am not aware of any basis to disallow the goal unless the AR had already signaled (raised flag) for the referee to stop play before the kick was taken, and the kicker put the ball in play before the referee could act on the referee's signal. That is not what you described, however.