BlindButFair
New Member
I had a tricky situation in a match on the weekend. This was my 6th match as a centre.
Attacking team is down by 1 goal and we're approaching full time. Defender holds the attacker a few yards out of the penalty area, I wait, attacker shrugs him off and plays a nice ball through to his teammate who's well inside the PA. I signal and yell advantage. The teammate and a different defender challenge for the ball, it pops over the goal line, I look over at the club AR to confirm my impression of goal kick and ... his flag is up for offside. Bugger.
What to do in this situation? According to the LOTG if the anticipated advantage doesn't develop I can bring the play back. But in the written advice from my local FA (in Australia) they say this (emphasis mine):
"The referee must signal advantage, as well as yell it out. The referee has a few seconds to decide whether they wish to play advantage or stop play for the foul... Once advantage has been played, the foul cannot be brought back."
So, I didn't bring it back but instead gave an IFK for the offside offence. This caused a lot of consternation for the attacking team, and led to some polite but frustrated words from their coach after the match.
Interested in people's thoughts as to whether I should have brought it back for a free kick (acknowledging my local FA advice), argued that the advantage had already accrued since he was able to play the pass, or done something else different?
(Fundamentally I think the mistake I made was to signal advantage too quickly - and if I'd been a bit wider I probably would have spotted the AR's flag earlier)
Attacking team is down by 1 goal and we're approaching full time. Defender holds the attacker a few yards out of the penalty area, I wait, attacker shrugs him off and plays a nice ball through to his teammate who's well inside the PA. I signal and yell advantage. The teammate and a different defender challenge for the ball, it pops over the goal line, I look over at the club AR to confirm my impression of goal kick and ... his flag is up for offside. Bugger.
What to do in this situation? According to the LOTG if the anticipated advantage doesn't develop I can bring the play back. But in the written advice from my local FA (in Australia) they say this (emphasis mine):
"The referee must signal advantage, as well as yell it out. The referee has a few seconds to decide whether they wish to play advantage or stop play for the foul... Once advantage has been played, the foul cannot be brought back."
So, I didn't bring it back but instead gave an IFK for the offside offence. This caused a lot of consternation for the attacking team, and led to some polite but frustrated words from their coach after the match.
Interested in people's thoughts as to whether I should have brought it back for a free kick (acknowledging my local FA advice), argued that the advantage had already accrued since he was able to play the pass, or done something else different?
(Fundamentally I think the mistake I made was to signal advantage too quickly - and if I'd been a bit wider I probably would have spotted the AR's flag earlier)