The Ref Stop

Whistle blast before 5 second count down.

HibbyGaz

HibbyGaz

New Member
Not sure how anyone else is getting on with it (pre count whistle) but after three friendlies and one academy game, I have stopped using the whistle and just started the loud verbal count down.

When whistling, players were getting confused with it whereas just starting the count down they have been fine.

I think in noisy EFL/Premier League grounds etc it may be beneficial??

How is everyone else finding it?
 
The Ref Stop
The difficulty with that approach is that on the goal kick and throw-in counts, it’s a specified requirement of the procedure.

So, whilst I appreciate it may feel sensible it puts you in a challenging place from a technical point of law.
 
The procedure is there for all referees.

The majority of referees you can barely hear on a football pitch. Doubly so for the ones who say "I like to talk".
So the whistle to draw attention to you is a necessary evil overall.
If some refs are doing it and others not there's going to be confusion.

The goalkeeper's especially are now just waiting for you to start the count.
 
HibbyGaz said:
Not sure how anyone else is getting on with it (pre count whistle) but after three friendlies and one academy game, I have stopped using the whistle and just started the loud verbal count down.

When whistling, players were getting confused with it whereas just starting the count down they have been fine.

I think in noisy EFL/Premier League grounds etc it may be beneficial??

How is everyone else finding it?
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I have seen 4 games now and haven’t seen any confusion from players. Yes, it can be a bit of the pain having to use the whistle when it was usually the case to use sparingly, but it has produced the desired outcome of compliance. Having said that if a game has neutral Assistants, there are opportunities for the active AR to be pro-active so that the Referee may not have to intervene.
 
I won't do this until next season but I wonder if doing a short double peep instead of a single blast would take any possible confusion out of it.
 
I have seen one where the whistle was blown as the player was in the process of throwing the ball. This caused the players to stop. But at that point, the thrower is no longer wasting time so the whistle and count arent needed anyway.
If youre going to do this, you should be blowing at a point at which the thrower isnt on the verge of throwing it, which means it shouldn't cause a problem.
 
one said:
I won't do this until next season but I wonder if doing a short double peep instead of a single blast would take any possible confusion out of it.
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I think in my games at least this might bring even more confusion. I have always been double to stop play/restart and single to get the game going again after a stoppage.

Had a few games with the new law now and haven't had any issues with confusion from the players
 
DavidObs said:
I have seen 4 games now and haven’t seen any confusion from players. Yes, it can be a bit of the pain having to use the whistle when it was usually the case to use sparingly, but it has produced the desired outcome of compliance. Having said that if a game has neutral Assistants, there are opportunities for the active AR to be pro-active so that the Referee may not have to intervene.
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🤔 I think if deployed in the way intended the were only counting at the point we would have been getting close to a caution, or reprimand, so we are still vocally encouraging the restart and at a time we would have still blown the whistle to indicate the restart needs to be taken so, yes I think whistle usage will go up a little but in reality we hopefully won't have to deploy it too frequently.
 
MuffledWarbler said:
I have seen one where the whistle was blown as the player was in the process of throwing the ball. This caused the players to stop. But at that point, the thrower is no longer wasting time so the whistle and count arent needed anyway.
If youre going to do this, you should be blowing at a point at which the thrower isnt on the verge of throwing it, which means it shouldn't cause a problem.
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Agree with a "but." Some players stall by repeatedly looking like they are going to throw it. At some point the R has to step in (and if I were a player stalling while doing that dance, I'd throw it as the whistle blew to take more time. . . .).
 
I had a situation Saturday that I’d like some advice / clarification on please.

Approaching the last 10 mins of the game, away side winning 2-1 and quite obviously trying to slow the game down, subsequently quite sharp on throw ins using the protocol and it’s working really well.

I then have a situation where the ball is heading out of play with the ball bouncing towards the benches, the away side manager attempts to catch the ball and pass it to his own left back to to take the throw, but in that process they manage to send the ball over the advertising hoardings (deliberately in my opinion) but also being quite clever with it. I subsequently blow my whistle and start the count, as you can probably imagine the bench goes berserk and quite vocally suggest that I can’t start the count as someone needs to retrieve the ball for the thrower, now in my opinion, it’s a deliberate act to slow down the game so I’m quite within my right to start the count.

Just interested to know whether I’m correct in my application here?

Not that it matters but one of the subs subsequently jumped over the hoarding and collected the ball and I didn’t need to reverse the throw in, but it did all feel a little awkward and badly managed.
 
I went to an RA meeting last night and a question from someone was something along the lines of
“what happens if a player picks the ball up for a throw in and then puts it down for the next player to come and take” -

The answer from someone in the room and then confirmed by an RDO was “you should still caution for delaying the restart and use that just like you usually would” - isn’t this just completely wrong? Surely you should start the count at that point when the ball is down as they’re starting to delay? And the whole point of the new rule is not to caution for delaying?
 
betterlatethannever said:
I went to an RA meeting last night and a question from someone was something along the lines of
“what happens if a player picks the ball up for a throw in and then puts it down for the next player to come and take” -

The answer from someone in the room and then confirmed by an RDO was “you should still caution for delaying the restart and use that just like you usually would” - isn’t this just completely wrong? Surely you should start the count at that point when the ball is down as they’re starting to delay? And the whole point of the new rule is not to caution for delaying?
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If it was at the same meeting I was at the reply was provided by a L2 Referee. I know where L2/RDO were coming from. However, on IFABs Q&A page -

A player appears to take a throw-in but suddenly leaves the ball to a team-mate. What action does the referee take?​

If the team is deliberately delaying the throw-in, the referee may use their whistle and/or voice to indicate that they should hurry up. To start the five-second countdown (which may start without the above cue), the referee blows the whistle, signals with their hand/arm for the throw-in to be taken and counts down the five seconds with a raised hand. If the ball is not in play by the end of the five seconds, the referee awards the throw-in to the opposing team from the same position as the original throw-in.


Law does go on to state: The offending player is cautioned only if they excessively delay the restart after the throw-in has been awarded to the opposing team.
 
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DavidObs said:
If it was at the same meeting I was at the reply was provided by a L2 Referee. I know where/RDO were coming from. However, on IFABs Q&A page -

A player appears to take a throw-in but suddenly leaves the ball to a team-mate. What action does the referee take?​

If the team is deliberately delaying the throw-in, the referee may use their whistle and/or voice to indicate that they should hurry up. To start the five-second countdown (which may start without the above cue), the referee blows the whistle, signals with their hand/arm for the throw-in to be taken and counts down the five seconds with a raised hand. If the ball is not in play by the end of the five seconds, the referee awards the throw-in to the opposing team from the same position as the original throw-in.


Law does go on to state: The offending player is cautioned only if they excessively delay the restart after the throw-in has been awarded to the opposing team.
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Could have been the same meeting, I was going to say something but didn’t want to rock the boat and cause a scene!

That was wrong information to a room of 90 people!!
 
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