The referee plays advantage perfectly when you let the non-offending team build up an attack. But where do you apply the advantage? In this blog post you’ll see video examples, plus criteria to keep in mind when giving advantage. Because of a great example in the last UCL round, I thought about writing this blog story. Have a look at the video below. Foul in counter-attack by Ajax Referee Carlos del Cerro Grande plays the advantage in the clip above. Dybala from Juventus is on the left wing. In the middle Ajax player Ekkelenkamp clearly pulls Ronaldo back, because he wants to stop him moving forward. As pointed out the…

Two separate cautionable offences in close proximity. It has never happened to me that I have to show a player two yellow cars plus a red card within seconds. How about you? The only situation I remember is with Turkish referee Cüneyt Çakır, but that is a while ago. During the Uefa Champions League game between Ajax and Real in 2018-2019 there is a similar one with referee Felix Brych. Real Madrid player Nacho has the “honour” of receiving two yellows in one minute. One season later: Brych experienced a similar situation again in the game between Napoli vs Barcelona. Have a look at both videos and keep in mind:…

Referee Anthony Taylor spots foul before offside offence, but is he correct to award a penalty kick? In this case study you’ll learn what to do. Because it’s good to think first, try to ask the following question first. What do the Laws of the Game say about fouls and offside situations? Offside position or not The first question: is Kane in offside position? A player is in an offside position if: any part of the head, body or feet is in the opponents’ half (excluding the halfway line) and any part of the head, body or feet is nearer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and…

VAR disallows goal in Champions League. A historical decision, but is it the right one? A case study from a refereeing point of view. It’s a match situation in the game between Ajax and Real Madrid. The referee is Damir Skomina and the video referee is Szymon Marciniak. In the Uefa documentary Man in the middle Skomina says about VAR that referees have to forget their ego. Want to receive the latest info about refereeing? Subscribe to the newsletter. Check out the highlights of the situation. Below you’ll find the explanation. How VAR disallows goal in Champions League Because it is so difficult in real-time, you need a VAR to…

Scoring directly from a corner kick. Is that allowed? But does the referee need to whistle? An interesting case study with AZ player Oussama Idrissi.   The referee gives no signal to take the corner kick. Whistle or not? The Laws of the Game give advice on when you whistle as referee, but a referee does not require it in all situations. Because the following restarts are clear, the referee does NOT need to whistle to restart play from: most free kicks, and a goal kick, corner kick, throw-in or dropped ball Idrissi can take this corner kick, because waiting for a whistle is not mandatory. The AZ goal is…

Can you score a goal from a throw-in? That was the biggest question this weekend in the Bundesliga game VfB Stuttgart vs Bremen. Goalkeeper Zieler is not alert when a team-mate throws him the ball. But did he touch it? And what if: how do you restart play as referee? A great video example to learn from in this case study. LOTG: can’t score a goal from a throw-in The Laws of the Game are very clear on this. “A goal cannot be scored directly from a throw-in”. Do you know the correct restarts when it happens? Think about this, you’ll get the answers below. But first the reaction of the…