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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

A new case study: “Offside when defender leaves field of play”. CSKA think they score a goal, but does it count? A screenshot from the situation. To give some extra info: the player in black right in front of the goalie touches the ball. What is your call? I hope you made that call right now. The video clips on YouTube and other websites are vague or can’t be embedded. The pic is much better, but I will show you the full situation now. What’s your verdict? (Explanation below) And, still the same verdict? Defender leaves field of play: what do the LOTG say? The Laws of the Game are…