Attempting to kick an Opponent

[Egg man]

In my adult game yesterday, a player attempted to trip / kick an Opponent.

Yellow team went on a quick counter attack after defending a corner, yellow player pick the pull and when on a run, Blue team defender in my opinion tried to trip / kick yellow player from behind but miss and did not Impede the Yellow player. Had he caught the Blue player I would had been thinking caution or Red card depending on the impact as there was no attempted to play the ball. I did have a word when next passing the Blue player letting know I had seen it and he was a very luck that he did not make contact with the yellow player.

My question is should I of booked the Blue player at the next stop in play. I have in pass games when play has gone for advantage shouted to a player "number 2 I will be coming back to you" then caution them. But as there was no contact or impeded the yellow player progress I let it go with just a word.

Should I have caution him?

Remember this is park football.

 

[QuaverRef]

Had he caught the Blue player I would had been thinking caution or Red card depending on the impact as there was no attempted to play the ball.

if you’re considering a red card here then you must have thought it was violent conduct and if so, making contact with the player is irrelevant.

Caution here would also only apply if you consider the challenge to be reckless as the play progressed so either you play advantage and no caution, or you stop play and caution but considering he didn’t make contact it wouldn’t have been a good decision.

As always you had to be there but having a word seems like enough here

 

[higdawgy]

And there is a difference between trying to trip a player and trying to kick someone. A trip would be a foul and possible caution depending on the circumstances.
A kick is more likely to be violent conduct and a red.

 

[GraemeS]

Yeah, I think you describing this as kick/trip is making the decision space much wider and therefore harder to decide what is correct.

A trip is a foul only in most situations, with the yellow card only becoming necessary in cases of SPA or PI. In this case, if you define it as a trip and then play advantage, the PA (promising attack) has not been S'd, so there's no yellow unless it's persistent.

A deliberate kick (ie the player is the target) starts at a yellow card for a reckless kick and could potentially be SFP if the force is high enough. And neither of those would be mitigated by the fact you chose to play advantage, it would be correct to go back and issue the card at the next stoppage (or the next time the player is involved in play if you deem it to be red).

So to answer the question: maybe? Define the offence in your head first and then it becomes a lot simpler to filter through the possible punishments and when they should be applied or mitigated.

 

[Egg man]

Yeah, I think you describing this as kick/trip is making the decision space much wider and therefore harder to decide what is correct.

A trip is a foul only in most situations, with the yellow card only becoming necessary in cases of SPA or PI. In this case, if you define it as a trip and then play advantage, the PA (promising attack) has not been S'd, so there's no yellow unless it's persistent.

A deliberate kick (ie the player is the target) starts at a yellow card for a reckless kick and could potentially be SFP if the force is high enough. And neither of those would be mitigated by the fact you chose to play advantage, it would be correct to go back and issue the card at the next stoppage (or the next time the player is involved in play if you deem it to be red).

So to answer the question: maybe? Define the offence in your head first and then it becomes a lot simpler to filter through the possible punishments and when they should be applied or mitigated.

Thinking back I would say it was a attempted trip with no intention to play the ball. What I'm asking asking is the blue player has attempted to trip ( unsporting behaviour) even though he missed. I've seen this allowed play to go on. Could I gone back and caution the player?

 

[GraemeS]

Thinking back I would say it was a attempted trip with no intention to play the ball. What I'm asking asking is the blue player has attempted to trip ( unsporting behaviour) even though he missed. I've seen this allowed play to go on. Could I gone back and caution the player?

OK, so next, think about what offence from the LOTG you would actually be cautioning for.

* Attempting to trip isn't a cautionable offence unless the force rises to the level of reckless, which I find difficult to imagine for a trip outside of exceptional circumstances.
* Stopping a promising attack includes the word "stopping" - if you've played an advantage (and it is a genuine advantage, not just a PL keeping-possession-advantage) then the attack won't have been stopped and it can't qualify.
* PI is always on the table and I'd be inclined to use the tightest possible definition of persistent in the case of an attempt to cynically trip, but you still can't go for this on a first offence.

So I think you were right not to caution in the described situation.

If that feels incorrect or unfair despite the above logic, I'd guess you feel like the advantage didn't really come to much, which then begs the question of if you should actually have played the advantage. If the attacker has been knocked off balance and misplays the pass as a result, or has to cut back to avid the foul, or is forced into the path of another defender, he may have kept possession but lost the advantage. In which case, you probably should have stopped play, given the FK and issued the YC based on SPA because the attempted trip did have a material affect on stopping the attack.

Conversely, if it really was just an attempted trip and it really didn't have a material effect on the attacker, then I think you need to accept that you made the correct call, even if the attacker then misplayed the pass or lost possession on their own.