Common sense from referee Jones or error
Extraordinary situation in the Premier League match between Norwich City and Cardiff City. A few minutes in extra time of the second half, Ricky van Wolfswinkel throws in for Norwich after the ball was kicked out for an injury. Leroy Fer receives the ball and scores, where most players expect him to pass the ball back. Then referee Mike Jones disallows to goal and makes clear that he did not give a whistle/signal to start play again.
The throw-in needed to be re-taken. No more goals were scored, so the match ended in a goalless 0-0.
Check the situation here:
An anonymous reaction on Twitter: “Well done to Mike Jones. Not technically correct in law, but quick thinking and common sense to find a way of retaking the throw.”
The referee got support from other tweeting referees.
Very sensible refereeing from Michael Jones in the Cardiff Norwich game!
— Luke Irelan-Hill (@lukey868) October 26, 2013
Leroy Fer. Everything that's wrong with football now. Sportsman first. Result second.
— Sam Johnson (@samjohnson23) October 26, 2013
But what do the Laws of the Game say about restarting play? In the LATG under “Use of whistle”: the whistle is needed to restart play after it has been stopped due to:
- the issue of a yellow or red card for misconduct
- injury
- substitution
The ball went out because there was an injury. Anyone heared a whistle from the referee to restart play?
Cardiff manager Malky Mackay claimed ‘common sense from referee Mike Jones prevailed’, he told Daily Mail.
And what did Leroy Fer think of the whole situation? “I wanted to win the game”. Check full interview with him in video below.
Mike Jones was appointed as fourth official the week after this incident. It was for the Arsenal – Liverpool top clash. Is that a demotion? On the 9th of November, one week later, he will referee Liverpool – Fulham.
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15 Comments
gangadharan
players should have more sportsmanship .football is not just for winning the game
Dr. Errol Sweeney
The referee was wrong. You don’t need a whistle to restart the game and this goal should have been allowed. This is a case of referees changing the LOTG to suit the occasion. Wrong decision Mr Jones
mahyoub
hello everybody.
first of all – a throw-in is a method of restart of play
no goal directly from it
did the player play the ball according to the law 15 correctly?
did the ball is touched or played b another player?
does the player need a signal from the ref. to play?
is the ball in or not?when does the ball become in play in throw-n?
so the goal is allowed or not????
Josh Wiffen
wrong decision – whistle needed to restart play after an injury, but this wasn’t restarted due to injury, it was restarted as the ball was kicked over the touchline -the referee physically didn’t stop the game for an injury, in which case would be a drop ball given, unless it was a foul. if you look, the referee beckons the player to throw the ball, which is an acceptable signal in the situation of the throw in – HOWEVER – that being said, that is just the technical aspect of the law, Mike Jones has used common sense and though wrong in law, has actually prevented a catastrophe. great use of common sense. If he wanted to use a law though, he could have disallowed the goal, and cautioned Leroy Fer, and given an indirect FK because the player “act[ed] in a manner which shows lack of respect to the game”. The keeper and every other player thought it was just going to be kicked back to them, and while the referee has no power to force the ball to be kicked back, if the other players think that is what’s happening you can use this Law to prevent an apocalypse on the field of play!