A&H

Corner flags

Z

Zimmyman

Well-Known Member
I’m getting mixed up confusion on corner flags are they compulsory ?????? Can’t find the answer on my course I’m sure I was told they weren’t ( you can bet what my first question in the exam will be !!)
 
The Referee Store
The golden rule for me is to always try and find a reason to play a game, provided there is no dangers. Missing flags or nets is inconvenient and you should always arrive in good time before KO to give the club every chance to get all issues sorted but, I call off a game if they were missing. For instance, there was a missing corner arc for one of my recent games, I asked the club to paint it but they couldn’t in time for KO. I got agreement of both teams (this ‘agreement’ was me really just warning them that I call where the ball is placed) and played the game. I then reported that the pitch was not properly marked (it is an option on my match card).
 
Game on 3g pitch last Saturday morning, no corner flags present. I ask the home team manager where the flags were and he didn't know (first time they'd hired this pitch as there's usually kids that play on it on a Saturday morning, caretaker of the school we were playing on had gone for a bacon butty!). I said not to worry let's just get playing.

I did have a similar issue during the final league game of an u18 league season in May where nobody could find the key to the cupboard where the nets were kept. Home team manager asks "what do we do if we can't find the key", "play without them mate, they manage to do so all over the world so why not here". The key was found but we would've played it without nets, they're not in the LOTG
 
Also, I did 10 friendlies pre season and only a couple of them went ahead with corner flags because the ground was so firm!
 
Padfoot said:
If you were being assessed, would you play a game without corner flags?
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Yes, but I’d make sure I asked the question to the home team (“Do you have corner flags?”) and also make sure I highlighted their non existence to both teams - captains, and management- and I would flag it up (pun intended) to my assessor so they were aware of my thought process and decision making.

As an assessor, what would be your verdict on the above, versus not playing the game for lack of flags?
 
If there weren't any and its low standard Sunday League stuff then yes. I would explain that I know that the LOTG state that there must be corner flags, but also the IFAB advice for low standard games is to play without them as the game should be encouraged at lower levels. I would also explain that i would be reporting the incident.
 
I looked this up in a changing room once last year when I'd just qualified as a level 7 and the pitch I was at had no corner flags lol
 
WilliamD said:
Shin pads are a rather different topic involving safety. Corner flags are for our convenience. I’ll go with ifab guidelines on this one. Hope my observers are up to speed on these. View attachment 2497
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Glad you posted that.....wanted to see if anyone had read that far in the book!

One final conundrum.....’appropriate authorities ‘.....which is?
 
When I was going through promotion I was observed several times at a particular complex where there are two artificial pitches. One observer, who was also in charge of the promotion scheme, would always ask "why shouldn't this game have been played". The answer was no corner flags (as no holes to put them in), and that was all he was looking for and it was never mentioned on the report.

Thousands of games have been played on artificial pitches with no corner flags, just get on with it. On a grass pitch be seen to try and get it sorted out, but lack of corner flags shouldn't see a game called off. There is zero player safety risk, the only risk is you may give a goal kick instead of a corner or vice versa.
 
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