Question Number: 34315

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 8/22/2021

RE: Pro Adult

Crebs Crem of Zagreb, Croatia asks...

This question is a follow up to question 34310

Oh, I am really sorry for the typo. I actually meant why didn't the referee restart the play with a dropped ball after Rooney has been sent off?

I know, penalty kick cannot be awarded in such a case since the ball was not in the play when Rooney committed the misconduct.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Crebs,
As you say, the ball was not in play. When the ball is out of play, the restart does not change by actions that occur while the ball is out of play.
The elbow occurred before the corner kick was taken. 10 seconds or a tenth of a second before, doesn't matter - for misconduct that occurs prior to a restart, the restart cannot take place until the misconduct is dealt with.

Effectively, time is frozen at the moment of the incident. The fact that the kick was taken moments afterwards is a bit of a red herring - if we go back to the state of things at the time of the elbow, the corner had not been taken, so that's the point we resume from.

Answer provided by Referee MrRef

HI Crebs,
I sent you an email from Mrref asking for clarification not sure if you got it or if you are simply responding to the last set of answers?.

The referee may not change a restart decision on realising that it is incorrect or on the advice of another match official if play has restarted or the referee has signalled the end of the first or second half (including extra time) and left the field of play or abandoned the match.

Except as outlined in Law 12.3 and the VAR protocol, a disciplinary sanction may only be issued after play has restarted if another match official had identified and attempted to communicate the offence to the referee before play restarted the restart associated with the sanction does not apply.

Free kicks (direct or indirect), penalty kicks, throw-ins, goal kicks and corner kicks are other restarts (see Laws 13–17). A dropped ball is the restart when the referee stops play and the Law does not require one of the above restarts.

If an offence occurs when the ball is not in play, this does not change how play is restarted.

takes disciplinary action against players guilty of cautionable and sending-off offences
acts on the advice of other match officials regarding incidents that the referee has not seen

When there is an oversight or something is missed, with VAR things tend to get dealt with quickly, and given the timing of the incident occurs BEFORE play has begun the incident is being treated as ONLY misconduct while the ball was out of play and no actual effect was achieved whilst the ball was in play until the referee stopped play. Thus a restart was not accepted as in effect. In ACTUAL grassroots if such an incident occurs and let us say the play was restarted and the ball hit the post or crossbar and rebounded out. The opposing team sprung a quick attack and went down to the other end and scored. Before restarting the AR comes to you and says there was a misconduct incident at the other end just before the ball was put in play. Remember it CAN NOT BE a foul as it is not occurring during play. If the player was an attacker it would be nonsense to disallow the goal and restart with a corner at the other end even if we send off the attacker for VC and reduce his team a player. But let's imagine a case where this rebound and reverse of play occurs and the AR has a raised flag trying to get the referee's attention to that VC.

It's a matter of timing!

If the play was reversed, the flag missed, but the AR KNEW the VC needed to be dealt with by the referee and it was only after the far AR points out to the CR that the other AR behind the play has a raised flag & only then does he stop play to deal with this unknown flag situation. The AR /CR exchange the info the CR shows the red card sends off the player, reduces the team by a player. For what it is worth a SENDING OFF situation cannot be easily set aside as could a caution. To await a natural stoppage, ball into touch, a goal, a new foul and then relay the info in the old VC, as play has NOT Yet restarted, the old sanctions can be applied. Chances are though we go with the new restart if that was why the play was stopped again. Still, can you imagine if the player who did the VC misconduct benefited from being on the FOP and scored? Here though I am postulating the CR stopped ONLY because the flag was up.

NOW how to restart?
How far back in time do we or CAN we go?
The LOTG ask us to restart according to the LOTG .
It was theorized that a drop ball to the team with ball possession might be one way. Yet that would mean the team that created the problem could retain the ball and even be in a good attack position? Plus either keeper gets that ball if it was last touched inside the PA before that whistle.

The CR can act on the advice of other match officials regarding incidents that he has not seen & is duty-bound to take disciplinary action against players guilty of cautionable and especially sending-off offences

The LOTG do state that if the CR stopped solely to show a card an INDFK in favour of the other team from where the misconduct occurs. -BUT-it was before a restart, the ball is NOT yet in play so we have no valid location to restart when ball is out of play as in this case!

The restart does not technically count BECAUSE the AR knew of MISCONDUCT and was not yet able to transmit this to the CR before that restart occurred We either restart with the corner kick after showing the red card, sending off the player and reducing his team a player, which is correct in law but is certainly going to freak out one team regardless of being a man up because it creates a scoring opportunity. Or we award an INDFK from somewhere just to get the game going and take the flack in the post-game review!