Dissent by action. A player applauds after you show him a yellow card. What do you decide?
Will you certainly show the second yellow card? Will you give a stern warning, because he’s already on a yellow? Or will you probably ignore him?
Jean-Paul Boëtius receives a yellow card by referee Pol van Boekel, but he disagrees. He applauds at the referee’s decision. He receives a second yellow card because of this. But what do the Laws of the Game say about this?
LOTG on dissent by action
The Laws of the Game mention that a yellow card is mandatory. “Because a player is cautioned if guilty of dissent by word or action.”
And what is dissent? The vocabulary in the LOTG clearly explains it. “Public disagreement (verbal and/or physical) with a match official’s decision; punishable by a caution (yellow card).”
Restart of the game?
Gestures towards the referee result in an indirect free kick. Applauding or other gestures are not the same as ‘offences against a match official’. This type of fouls are physical offences.
In the situation below, the restart is certainly not an indirect free kick. It’s a direct free kick, because play was already stopped due to the first physical foul.
The wait and see technique is well-known in football. Assistant referees should not raise their flag too soon, but wait how play continues. This blog post contains three great offside examples to show how it works.
The first example comes from France in the 2018-2019 season.
What is your first thought when seeing a situation like this below? Offside probably, but nothing is what it seems.
Because when you have a clip of the full situation, you’ll notice that the player does not get involved in play. The player who passes the ball is the person who also touches it again.
Biggest lesson here: have the courage to wait. The next situations are a a bit more tricky. See below.
Wait and see by Marciniak
The second example is from a 2017-2018 Champions League game. Feyenoord plays at home against Manchester City and the referee is Szymon Marciniak. But I’d like to mention his assistant referee Tomasz Listkiewicz. I’ll analyse the situation below the video clip.
How important waiting is
The situation as it happened. Manchester City takes a corner kick and the ball does not get away. A Feyenoord defender blocks a shot from outside the box, but it’s not sufficient. There is a second shot on goal. As you can see, at the moment of the pass there is an attacker in offside position.
Feyenoord goalie Jones saves this second shot and the striker in offside position is not yet active in play. The Laws of the Game say the following about this. A player is interfering with an opponent by:
gaining an advantage by playing the ball or interfering with an opponent when it has (1) rebounded or been deflected off the goalpost, crossbar, match official or an opponent or (2) been deliberately saved by any opponent
That is what happens here if the player in offside position gains the advantage. But is that the fact here?
Wait and see technique in LOTG
The Laws of the Game (LOTG) also mention the fact assistant referees need to see how play develops. The rulebook says: “The AR must use the “wait and see technique” to allow play to continue and not raise the flag when the team against which an offence has been committed will benefit from the advantage; it is therefore very important for the AR to make eye contact with the referee.”
And that is exactly what happens here. Although the player is in offside position, he is not active in play and does not interfere with an opponent. The assistant referee waits until someone touches the ball and that is an attacker who is not in offside position at the moment of the shot on goal.
So correct goal.
Great teamwork by the match officials and good use of the wait and see technique. I’d love to hear how they communicate in situations like this, because that makes it even more interesting. It gives us an even better idea how these calls are made.
Below another example.
Situation in The Netherlands
The following situation is in The Netherlands, but it’s slightly different. You’ll see that striker Van Wolfswinkel is in offside position at the moment of the pass and he runs towards the ball. What would you decide in this situation? (start at 1m56s)
And then something interesting happens. Van Wolfswinkel (red circle in pic below) runs towards the ball, but does not touch it. And that is the crucial detail to make the correct decision, because that’s important to determine if someone is interfering with play or an opponent.
The player does not touch the ball, therefore he is not interfering with play. The LOTG mention that interfering with play means you’re “playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate.”
Players interfere with an opponent by:
preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or
challenging an opponent for the ball or
clearly attempting to play a ball which is close to him when this action impacts on an opponent or
making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball
Van Wolfswinkel is running towards the ball, but that does not meet the criteria above. His actions don’t have an impact on the opponent.
But he is the player who scores. What is in the LOTG about gaining advantage?
Gaining an advantage
I want to tell you something about gaining an advantage. But we forget one important thing. Is the other player in offside position? In the video you can see lines on the pitch. I’ve marked it purple below and you see the secondlast defender’s shoe is closer the goal-line.
Gaining an advantage only applies when the ball rebounds from an opponent, crosbar,goalpost or match official. Or when a defender deliberately saves the ball. That’s not the case here. As a result, there is a new situation at the moment the right winger receives the ball. When the right winger passes the ball back to Van Wolfswinkel, he is behind the ball. Correct goal and great wait and see technique there.
Do you remember any interesting situations like this? Let me know.
Interfering with an opponent, what is that exactly? The Polish refereeing team made a great call you can learn from in their game between Dynamo Kyiv and Slavia Prague. At first glance the goal seems to count, but the refereeing team was making sure to get clear what happened. Who were involved? Who was in offside position?
Below you can see the video of the match situation. But before you watch, try to write down the criteria for offside. Focus on interfering with an opponent. Below the video you’ll get an explanation, but it’s a good exercise to share your own thoughts first.
The match situation
You’ll notice the assistant referee moving away from the goal-line, because that is the signal a ball has crossed the line. But in the meantime referee Daniel Stefański keeps talking with assistant referee Dawid Igor Golis.
If you check the clip again, you’ll notice two players in an offside position. The goal scorer is not. The question now is: what is the role of the players in offside position? Do you know what the Laws of the Game say about this?
LOTG on interfering with an opponent
The Laws of the Game are clear on this matter. A player who is in offside position after a pass from a team-mate “is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by interfering with an opponent”. And this are the criteria for it:
preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or
challenging an opponent for the ball or
clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent or
making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball
The latter is crucial, because that is what blue attacker 19 does. At the moment of the pass he is in offside position. When he walks away from the goal-line he runs into a defender, who has no longer the chance to play the ball.
5 summer holidays fitness tips. When the season is over you might want to relax, but don’t get too relaxed. Take a different approach, because that will get you in a different vibe.
What I did right after the summer break? I did some walks on the Scottish island Skye and went to The Hague’s beach for stand up paddling. This s0-called supping is great fun and will also train lots of different muscles. In this article you’ll get some great advice by fitness experts, like the Dutch pro referee fitness instructor.
The 5 summer holidays fitness tips
Here’s how to start with some excercises after a period of physical inactivity.
Don’t do specific training sessions for 3-4 weeks. That’s the advice by Dutch referee fitness instructor Hilco de Boer. The idea behind it is: you give your mind and body a rest. Because your thoughts will be focused on other things than training sessions and games. “You’ll give your mind and body the time to recover from the season.”
Measure how you improve. You could weigh yourself after you came back from the holiday and set yourself a goal for the coming weeks. Another way to get statistics how your performance improves is time your runs and see how you get faster after each training session.
Go back into excercising gradually. Don’t start with a heavy training session. Just give your body a chance to build up the strength. After a holiday it’s not used to the heavy training sessions from before the summer break anymore.
Eat in moderation. Don’t continue with holiday excesses like overeating and drinking too much. Yeah, they are mostly always there. It’s good to have a few weeks of relaxation – don’t forget to take psychological rest -, but now is the time to get back in your physical routine.
Don’t start with running immediately, do some other sports. It’s good for your body to do some other sports before you ease into running again. Go cycling, play some football yourself or ask some friends to do a tennis or squash game. That’s also the advice from referee fitness instructor Hilco de Boer. Because when you do other sports, you’ll give your mind a good rest and different thing to focus on. When you want to start training again, the start gradually with running with this pre-season tips for referees.
The indirect free kick is an important part of football, but not raising your arm can cause serious problems. In the Euro u19 game between Portugal and the Czech Republic the referee forgets to raise his arm. Usually no big deal, but it is when a team scores directly. An interesting case study.
It’s the group stage during the youth European Championships. Portugal plays against the Czech Republic team. It’s exciting, because it is only 2-1 in favour of Portugal. In the 90th minute the Czech team receives a free kick at the halfway-line.
Analyse the clip for yourself. What do you see during the video? How does the referee act? How do players react?
Analyse your games based on facts
If you analyse your own games, always stick to the facts first.
In the video you can’t see the foul, but lets assume it is an indirect free kick. The fact is: the referee doesn’t rais his hand in the air.
The player kicks the ball, but nobody touches it before it enters the goal. The referee points towards the halfway-line so it seems like he allows the goal. Czech players cheer and celebrate the equalizer, but then the referee changes his mind.
Maybe his assistant referee or fourth official gives advice. That is not clear from a video with highlights. You’ll see in the clip that players realise the referee disallows the goal. He signals with his arm it is an indirect free kick and you can’t score directly from it.
That is true, but what is the correct restart?
Scored from an indirect free kick
The Laws of the Game explains the procedure of an indirect free kick. “The referee indicates an indirect free kick by raising the arm above the head. This signal is maintained until the kick has been taken and the ball touches another player or goes out of play.”
And also: “If an indirect free kick is kicked directly into the opponents’ goal, a goal kick is awarded.”
So far, so good. But here comes the tricky bit.
“An indirect free kick must be retaken if the referee fails to signal that the kick is indirect and the ball is kicked directly into the goal.” So if the referee does not raise his arm and the ball enters the goal, the kick is retaken.
Deliberate handling or not? That is always an interesting discussion for tv pundits and players, but also for referees. What are the criteria for a deliberate handball?
KNVB has made an interesting video with lots of examples, but I’d like you to do some homework first.
Get a pen and paper. Write down as many things you know about deliberate handling, because that will help you discover the rules the best.
Difficult isn’t it? How many bullet points do you have?
Now check out the video of non-deliberate handling. Below the video you’ll get the explanation by the Laws of the Game.
Laws of the Game on deliberate handling
According to the KNVB all these examples are non-deliberate handling. But why? Check out what criteria are mentioned in the Laws of the Game on page 96.
“Handling the ball involves a deliberate act of a player making contact with the ball with the hand or arm. The following must be considered:
the movement of the hand towards the ball (not the ball towards the hand)
the distance between the opponent and the ball (unexpected ball)
the position of the hand does not necessarily mean that there is an offence
touching the ball with an object held in the hand (clothing, shinguard, etc.)
is an offence
hitting the ball with a thrown object (boot, shinguard, etc.) is an offence”
How many of these bullet points did you write down before watching the video? I hope you like these small exercises that will keep your LOTG knowledge on par. Want to test that on a weekly basis? Check out the LOTG Quizzes.
Kieran Dowell touching the ball twice at penalty kick this weekend. In the cup match against Arsenal. How would you handle in situations like this?
And during last season a similar situationLeicester City got a penalty kick against Manchester City and Mahrez is the taker. He kicks the ball, but slips. The goalie protests right away and referee Robert Madley makes a quick decision. He disallows the goal, because it’s not allowed to kick the ball again before a team-mate or opponent has touched the ball.
Below another example plus an further explanation based on the Laws of the Game.
And have a look at the situation below.
Bacca also touching the ball twice at penalty kick
There’s also a similar situation in the Serie A earlier this season. In the game between Sassuolo and AC Milan Bacca touches the ball twice, but I needed a few replays to see that. At first glance it’s difficult to see what exactly happens.
But for the players on the pitch it was very clear. They immediately asked the referee if he had seen what they saw. Bacca’s left food slipped, so he could not take a proper kick. He shoots with his right foot, but can’t prevent it from touching his left foot as well before anyone else touches it. That extra touch gives the ball an extra spin, which puts it over the goalie, who is not able to touch the ball.
Arbiter Café on Twitter got me a clip that I could embed on the blog. Much appreciated. Please have a look and see if you can spot Bacca touching the ball twice at penalty kick. Below the video you’ll find an explanation based on the Laws of the Game.
Difficult to spot, right? Only the replays will give you a clear view of what happened.
Explanation with Laws of the Game
The Laws of the Game (page 95 and 96) are clear: “The kicker must not play the ball again until it has touched another player. (…) If, after the penalty kick has been taken, the kicker touches the ball again before it has touched another player: an indirect free kick (or direct free kick for deliberate hand ball) is awarded.”
Encroaching
Referees have to focus on a lot of things during a penalty kick. They don’t want players or the goalie to move too quickly, but in the end not many referees whistle when it happens. Just wanted to know from you if referees should get more strict on encroachment. Vote in this Twitter poll.
During lots of penalty kicks taken in professional leagues one or both teams are encroaching. Should referees get more strict on this?
