Question Number: 29014

League Specific 11/27/2014

RE: youth Under 12

mark claydon of london, london england asks...

If a referee makes a mistake during a match and hasnt followed the FA laws can the FA overturn the result or replay the match after the game has finished

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Mark
Only a mis application of the Laws or a misapplication of the competition rules would be successful on appeal and necessitate a replay. Examples would include say awarding an IDFK at a penalty kick infringement instead of a retake, allowing five substitutes instead of three, use of rolling substitutions when not permitted
Matters of opinion or an error in refereeing judgement would not be grounds for a successful protest.
Mis applications are quite rare. The most high profile case was in the game between Uzbekistan versus Bahrain in Sept 2005 following a ‘technical error’ by the referee, when he awarded an IDFK instead of a retake for an infringement at a penalty kick.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Mark,
Unfortunately an err in judgement on facts concerning play are not protestable just irritable! Offside given when it should not on a onside goal, a non call foul missed where a clear Pk should have been awarded. Both of these mistakes can result in a perfectly good goal or opportunity to score being disallowed and there is nothing to be done other than being disappointed. These are opinion decisions and right or wrong a referees' authority under law 5 do not permit a second opinion after the fact.

An example of a protest filed was a uniform change by our player had brought black socks, black shorts instead of red socks, we were red and white or red and black. The opposition was black and blue and white. About 20 minutes in they demanded our player change into red socks, the referee was informed of the matter but said the uniforms were sufficiently distinguishable to not be a problem . I told the referee we would comply and sent a runner to the parking lot to fetch a pair out of my truck but the referee was so irritated with the opposing coach for screaming at him , the referee barked at me as was adamant that he said it was OK! We did have him change anyway but not before he had scored the 1st goal We won 4 to 0 they protested, the league turned them down for the replay !

What a referee cannot do is apply the LOTG or ROC incorrectly because these are not opinions of what you think you see, but hard guidelines that MUST be followed. An example of a miss application of law would be to conduct a restart incorrectly. The indfk awarded instead of a pk retake as my colleague Ref McHugh pointed out was one made even at the pro level recently! This match WAS replayed!

In a match I coached the referee awarded us a PK for a deliberately handled ball by the keeper outside the penalty area! We should have been awarded a DFK at the point the keeper DH and in my opinion a red card for DOGSO was certainly required. What we got was an illegal PK! That said I had my pk shooter deliberately miss as this would be a PROTESTABLE event. I nearly got thrown out because I was imploring the AR to step in and say something! This was a while back but it was a select u-15 boys match in a sanctioned provincial tournament not just a house rec league.

Once the match is over, the referee hands in the match report, if there are circumstances that require looking into, the team doing so usually has limited time and there is generally a cost in proceeding with a protest. You lose the protest, you lose the money, you file a counter protest ,same thing.
The league or association may well rule to overturn a result or force a replay or chose to do nothing except keep the money depending on the nature of the protest or the feasibility of being able to effectively do anything at all. Many ROC for casual tournaments have no time or realistic way of changing an outcome or results! Often state all Referee decisions are final! Seen many poor referee decisions carry the wrong team through in these type of tournaments!
Cheers