Question Number: 29254

Law 5 - The Referee 3/21/2015

RE: Adult

Mauricio P of Redmond, Washington United States asks...

Question regarding advantage:
Blue player gets fouled by red player. Blue team maintains control of the ball and referee plays advantage. Within 5 seconds from original foul, red player is now fouled by blue player.
Should the referee award a DFK to blue for the original foul, or DFK to red for the second foul?
Neither foul is worthy of a caution or send off.

Thanks

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Mauricio,
hmmm 5 seconds is a fair bit of time.

You can only call what you know to be true!

If you think the advantage was realized by blue then the free kick for red is the correct call, if red has no advantage to consider! Tis a foolish response to throw away an advantage but it is a choice.

The referee should be able to display and communicate the advantage signal/play on so the blue player is aware the referee saw the foul just chose not to stop play.

When the players involved in an altercation are remaining in close proximity, still challenging for the ball, a referee should be in tight at this point, indicating, 'Hey guys, I be right here, seeing everything!'

A blue retaliation foul if say the red foul was a holding foul against blue and it was still going on the blue player losing patience decides to react? It could be your advantage was never realized, the first foul allows the red player to get better position and thus the blue player tries to defend his position but fouls the red player. This LATE realization might encourage a go back to the first blue foul by red if red's foul was not too severe. Might require some explanation . lol

If the foul was doubtful or trifling you might consider a warning to both to knock it off guys.

I suggest whatever your decision is to make your presence known

I have extended advantage to 5 or 6 seconds on a couple of occasions but they did not end up in a foul against simply the options were delayed by unusual circumstances.

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The red player had his advantage and he squandered* it by fouling the blue player.

* Thanks to our friend Jim Allen for that wonderful phrase.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Mauricio
The answer depends on whether the referee deems that advantage has been realised or not on the first foul by Red. The Laws of the Game tells us that the decision to penalise the original offence must be taken within a few seconds. Now five seconds can be a very long time and it should be clear if advantage has been realised or not during that time. If there is a doubt the referee should not wait that long and penalise the foul.
If the referee deems that advantage has been played and realised then the *foul* is over and play continues. Should another foul happen after that then the referee will call that foul in this case Blue on Red.
On paper it is quite easy. In reality the referee has to make a judgement call on whether the advantage is realised or not. I would also say that if within a very short space of time the player with the advantage has to foul an opponent it is unlikely that a good advantage existed in the first place. Advantage is just not about maintaining possession of the ball, it is also about understanding the dynamics of the situation and what impact allowing play to continue will have.
Good refereeing here would suggest that the referee should penalise the first foul in your scenario and the question does not arise. It is not as if the Blue team players are going to complain about not allowing play to continue as there is no obvious benefit or that Red can complain about committing a clear foul.
Referees can also use the wait and see technique here by just delaying slightly on the call. When it is obvious that there is no benefit in allowing play to continue then the referee should stop play and award the free kick. The trick is to do it before the 2nd foul happens and the referee has some time in your scenario to recognise that.