Question Number: 33927

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 3/30/2020

RE: Competitive Adult

Refjak of Malindi, Kenya Kenya asks...

Hi!
Law 12 directs that if you apply advantage for a 2nd caution and the offender happens to play the ball again, then you stop play, caution then send off the player and restart with an IDFK unless the player committed a *more serious offence* . Qn 1. If by playing again, his challenge was reckless, what is the restart? And sanction?
Qn 2. Or if his last touch after the advantage was a serious foul, what would be the restart and sanction?
3. How do we account for the sanctioning in qn 1 an qn 2 above in relation to the 'more serious offence' mentioned above?

Cheers!

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Refjak
The purpose behind this Law is to prevent a player that is going to be sent off from getting involved in play. IFAB does not want a player that is going to get red carded say creating a goal or even scoring.
In the first question there is a more serious offence here of a reckless challenge which is a direct free kick restart. The card should be for the reckless challenge so there is actually then three cards. First caution, second caution plus advantage and then a third caution for the reckless challenge. All three cards should be reported.
On your second question it is a straight red card for serious foul play and the restart is a direct free kick or penalty kick. The two other yellow cards are also reported.
I assume by your question on taking account of the situation is that the report should contain everything that fully happened. In reality all three cards.
As a final comment my advice is that unless it is the unique circumstance of an immediate goal scoring opportunity advantage should not be played on a 2nd caution sending off. It is just too fraught with difficulties and it is possible that play can continue for a long time before the player is sent off. Also if it is a sending off it will not present well that play can continue for a period and then the player is sent off. It would want to be a very clear advantage in a goal scoring situation before I would not stop play.
I would also say that in the case of advantage at lower levels with play continuing that many referees may let the caution slide due to the fact that the foul did not stop play and the circumstances might present as not an obvious must caution situation.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi,
In all cases, the sanction and restart are based on what the ''more serious offence'' was. This is because what you are then punishing is the new offence they have committed, not the previous, less serious one.

So if the new offence is a reckless challenge (and that is a more serious offence than the previous one) you penalise it as you would any reckless challenge - and you would sanction accordingly. Likewise, if it were serious foul play, you would take the same actions as for any occurrence of serious foul play.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by the third question but I think it is covered by what I've already said in response to the first two.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 33929