A&H

Thrown in goal scenario

I think this should have explicitly said about the reason for the whistle to get the answer you want.

You can whistle because you have made a subjective decision, even if incorrect. Say in OP you think you are sending the keeper off (even if incorrect and the whistle is a mistake/error in law). This is a conscious decision to stop the game. It has to be a restart for whatever the decision was if you think it's the correct decision. For OP you would send the keeper off (in error of course) and DFK.

You can whistle, consciously, for a decision and then immediately after realize you have made a mistake in decision making. You can change your mind here but you can't un-stop the game after a conscious stoppage, i.e., you can not restart for an event that has not happened. Say you whistle to send keeper off because you think it's better than a goal. But then realize you can't send keeper off. The restart is still DFK. It's not a dropped ball or a goal. Another example is Whistling for offside too early where PIOP doesn't become active and another player scores. You can't allow goal or drop ball.

You can 'accidentally' or unintentionally whistle. Eg. breathe too hard while whistle in mouth (or R3 unintentionally touch buzzer button in Futsal). Futsal is clear on this but not so much for football. The expectation in football is game is stopped if you blow the whistle even unintentionally. Restart depends on the case. For OP for me, I'd go with @socal lurker , just apologize and give the DFK.

I don't like the wording in Futsal "by mistake". What does it mean? Laws say/imply you can change decision after you stop the game and before a restart. It doesn't say if stopping the game was a 'mistake' you have to drop ball. Let's say you forget which team running which way at the start of second half. Promising attack and when you can play advantage you blow to give a defensive free kick. This is a whistle by mistake but still a attacking free kick and not a dropped ball. So the Futsal scenario for me, it's only a goal if whistle/buzzer was unintentional, but not a conscious decision to stop game, even if it was an error.
Brilliant post - and I wasn’t trying to trick you.

You have given essentially the same answer as my mentors.

TBH I think that “whistle by mistake” is not familiar even to experienced referees - and as you say, it’s vague. I don’t see why a mistake could not include a conscious mistake - there is also the clear line about not interfering - but this is one for the futsal ref higher ups (IFAB?).

And, as you say, football expects that the game stops exactly when the whistle sounds - but the football or futsal LotG do not say that - they seem vague - so, they probably should say that;)


(Anyway, this actual scenario happened the other week, so was hotly discussed here.)
 
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