|
Last month, Dave Churchley highlighted many referees' concerns about the incident involving Gary Neville in South America, which was, coincidentally, a subject of an article in the Football Referee. Briefly, with the ball in play, a player fouls an opponent whilst they are both beyond the boundaries of the field of play. Dave argues that an indirect free kick should be awarded if play is stopped to administer a caution and not a drop ball restart.
In terms of natural justice, we perhaps feel that a free kick should be awarded as the offending team are not effectively penalised with a caution and a drop ball. However, the important aspect of the incident is that the ball is in play while the players are not. Law 12 states that should a player commit "any other offence, not previously mentioned in Law 12, for which play is stopped to caution or dismiss a player":-
The indirect free kick is taken from where the offence occurred.
Clearly, a free kick cannot be taken from outside of the field of play, thus the incident comes under the general term "temporary stoppage" described in Law 8. The Laws do not state the circumstances if a player should infringe if he/she is outside the field of play, so this is an example of a drop ball restart for "any reason not mentioned elsewhere in the Laws of the Game". A player may still be cautioned (or dismissed) whether he committed an offence on or off the field - as stated in International Board Decision 2 of Law 12.
Therefore, the explanation in the Football Referee is correct according to Law. It was a pity that the referee in South America did nothing, as this was clearly incorrect. Should we assume that he and his assistant did not see it, or dare I say decided not to take any action realising the restart would be a problem?
Peter Watson
|
|
