The Ref Stop

Delaying the Restart

L

ladbroke8745

RefChat Addict
How many referees actually caution for delaying the restart?
I do, and done so yesterday too. No complaints directed at me I might add yesterday.
However, it got me thinking. Here is the law in point.

DELAYING THE RESTART OF PLAY

Referees must caution players who delay the restart of play by:
  • appearing to take a throw-in but suddenly leaving it to a team-mate to take
  • delaying leaving the field of play when being substituted
  • excessively delaying a restart
  • kicking or carrying the ball away, or provoking a confrontation by deliberately touching the ball after the referee has stopped play
  • taking a free kick from the wrong position to force a retake
I've never cautioned for the last bullet point. Think I've cautioned once or twice in 15 years for the throw in situation and sub taking his time.
Most of my delaying restart cautions are for silly things like kicking the ball away, standing in front of free kick to deny a quick one etc.
Just watching the Burnley game, ref gave a free kick to Palace in which the ball then ends up at a Burnley player. He then "passes" to his team mate with a heavy kick ensuring the ball past the point where the free kick is, and where a Palace player was stood. Now, personally, I wouldn't caution here as Burnley player who received stopped promptly and passed to Palace. But I've seen in other games where players have stopped to complain about the free kick and then pass the ball the opposite way to any opponent and/or the place of the free kick. This to me is where a card is issued in my games. They know the game has stopped. They should be leaving the ball alone. I do try to warn them before doing so but sometimes I just don't get the chance to.

What I'm getting at, to ask, is what are peoples base lines for delaying the restart and do people caution for delaying the restart?
 
The Ref Stop
One of my pet hates is players standing next to the ball at a free kick hearing team mates shout, stand on it. I do warn players to move and make it clear, if you don't I will book you. I have issued some for that. Most though is kicking the ball away at a throw in, corner, GK etc. Never had any moaning at me but seen lots of moaning from team mates when some gets booked for this.
 
Keepers placing the ball on one end of GA for a goal kick, take a run up, then come and take the ball to place it at the other end of the GA.

ladbroke8745 said:
But I've seen in other games where players have stopped to complain about the free kick and then pass the ball the opposite way to any opponent and/or the place of the free kick.
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Is this delaying the restart? For me if I cation it will likely be for dissent. I have seen players do this even if they are behind. They are doing it to show their dissatisfaction/protest with your decision. Delayed restart is only a byproduct.
 
one said:
Keepers placing the ball on one end of GA for a goal kick, take a run up, then come and take the ball to place it at the other end of the GA.
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In the US, high school soccer has its own rules, which are mostly the same as the LOTG. The HS rules make it a caution to move a GK to the other side after placing the ball.
 
I've told the story before on here if the GK who came rushing out to sweep up a ball on the wing, tapped the ball over the sideline then when he realised an attacker was coming to take a quick throw, blasted the (already out of play) ball over a fence and into the next field. Easy caution, accepted with no fuss, but would have been absolutely fine if he'd just sent the initial clearance a mile in the first place!

Aside from that, this is one of those offences that is all about the context. One player considering a quick throw and then passing the ball to a teammate when it's not on is a perfectly normal action - but when the usual throw taker of a team leading by one goal in the 90th minute suddenly decides the opposite full back needs to take the throw, that's a dead giveaway.

Similarly, we need to look at context when considering if a ball kicked away is dissent or delay. Previously it would have made little difference (show the card, worry about the admin later), but with sin bins, we need to distinguish. And that main thing that will help is context. Does the team who's kicked the ball back benefit from slowing the game down? How "accepted" was the decision to give the foul in the first place? What was the player who moved the ball doing/saying as it happened? There's no one-size-fits-all answer here.

Standing on the ball (as described by @Gamespoiler) is actually far more likely to be a caution for failing to respect the distance. And when that is/isn't OK and is/isn't deserving of a caution is a whole other thread!
 
one said:
Is this delaying the restart? For me if I cation it will likely be for dissent. I have seen players do this even if they are behind. They are doing it to show their dissatisfaction/protest with your decision. Delayed restart is only a byproduct.
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The players body language and attitude should make it clear if it's dissent or not. For me, this is delaying the restart.
 
ladbroke8745 said:
What I'm getting at, to ask, is what are peoples base lines for delaying the restart and do people caution for delaying the restart?
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Base line for me is simply this:
If you deliberately move closer to or within 10 yards of that FK after I've blown for it and indicated direction - you deserve a caution - despite your dumb coach/captain shouting "Stand on it". 🙄
 
Kes said:
Base line for me is simply this:
If you deliberately move closer to or within 10 yards of that FK after I've blown for it and indicated direction - you deserve a caution - despite your dumb coach/captain shouting "Stand on it". 🙄
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Again, that's more likely to be failure to respect the distance. Similar in its intent, but different in law.
 
GraemeS said:
Again, that's more likely to be failure to respect the distance. Similar in its intent, but different in law.
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Not at all.
Remaining where you are (within 10 yards) is failing to respect the distance for me. Doing what Ive described above is deliberately delaying the restart.
 
one said:
Obviously you were there and saw the body language then ;)
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No more than you were. 😉
The OP has already described the "dissent" by way of the complaining. What the player does next is then put the ball further away - that's delaying the restart.
 
Kes said:
Not at all.
Remaining where you are (within 10 yards) is failing to respect the distance for me. Doing what Ive described above is deliberately delaying the restart.
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I think you're adding criteria that don't exist there. Being too close to the ball when the restart is due to happen is enough to qualify - nothing in the laws about why they're there or how they got there.

Wheras "delaying the restart" includes the 5 specific sub-clauses in the OP, only one of which (excessively delaying a restart) could be even remotely considered to match up with the idea of being too close. As I've said recently in other threads, why make up tenuous stretching of the laws to try and cover what's already covered much more clearly elsewhere?

Either way, the distinction is pretty much academic - they both carry the same punishment and the distinction is purely in the post-match admin.
 
GraemeS said:
I think you're adding criteria that don't exist there. Being too close to the ball when the restart is due to happen is enough to qualify - nothing in the laws about why they're there or how they got there.
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No it isn't.
That's why a quickly-taken FK can be "intercepted" by an opponent within 10 yards of it and play continues?
 
Kes said:
No it isn't.
That's why a quickly-taken FK can be "intercepted" by an opponent within 10 yards of it and play continues?
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But again, that's something for which there is a specific provision in the quick free kick section. IFAB's inexplicable decision to put a sanction in one section of the book and a specific exemption to that sanction 20 pages later is weird, but it still doesn't justify your attempt to bend and twist "delaying the restart" when it's covered perfectly by the much more simple "failure to respect distance".

And regardless, there's still nothing about how they got there - there is still nothing to distinguish between a player who committed a foul and then deliberately stood still in an obstructive position and a player who deliberately ran into that position. I'm perfectly happy with different degrees of tolerance to reflect different levels of "being a dick", but you're still cautioning for the same offence in both cases.
 
GraemeS said:
But again, that's something for which there is a specific provision in the quick free kick section. IFAB's inexplicable decision to put a sanction in one section of the book and a specific exemption to that sanction 20 pages later is weird, but it still doesn't justify your attempt to bend and twist "delaying the restart" when it's covered perfectly by the much more simple "failure to respect distance".

And regardless, there's still nothing about how they got there - there is still nothing to distinguish between a player who committed a foul and then deliberately stood still in an obstructive position and a player who deliberately ran into that position. I'm perfectly happy with different degrees of tolerance to reflect different levels of "being a dick", but you're still cautioning for the same offence in both cases.
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No, I'm not "bending or twisting" anything. You just don't want to see the logic in what I've posted.

A player who for instance, refuses to step back those extra 3 or 4 paces that you've warned him to do during a FK is "failing to respect".
A player who is involved in a challenge (for which I've given a FK) and is within 10 yards of it, gets to his feet and simply remains there until either told to move or even after being told (as above) is also "failing to respect".

A player who for whatever reason, is 10 yards or more away and immediately moves towards the ball after I've blown and given the FK, is only doing it for one reason - that's to delay the FK being taken or make it impossible/more difficult for it to taken, whether quickly or not. That's "delaying the restart".

Like you've already said, there are no scenarios given in the LOTG book in order for us to tick a box when issuing the caution. It's down to us to interpret what's been seen. I can see both sides. For me, almost anything done that prevents or attempts to prevent the free kick being taken quickly is "delaying". You can dress your argument up in whatever semantics you like, it doesn't change a thing. The OP asked for examples of a "base line" where this is concerned. I've given mine -it's compliant with the Laws and is as good as any.
 
There is no explicit list under "Failure to respect the distance". But there is one under "Delaying the restart", and it's posted at the top of this thread. And I should point out, that list doesn't begin with the word "includes" - so it therefore must be taken as an exhaustive list of the 5 things that qualify as delaying the restart. And none of those 5 include a player running in to block a restart a single time.

Maybe you've got a case if he does it over and over, but if you caution for the first occurrence, it has to be for failing to respect the distance because none of the listed 5 sub-offences for delaying can be applied. I get that this doesn't line up with the English-language way we might describe this incident, or the reasons behind it, but it's not the first time the LOTG has made up it's own definitions of English words.

Again, the outcome is functionally the same either way, so this discussion is very very irrelevant. And that's why I'm going to leave it there, but I still stand by what I'm saying!
 
Kes said:
No more than you were. 😉
The OP has already described the "dissent" by way of the complaining. What the player does next is then put the ball further away - that's delaying the restart.
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Easy two successive yellows and a send off then. Surely him kicking the ball away had nothing to do with his complaining "dissent" and it was not an 'action' in protesting a decision.
 
one said:
Easy two successive yellows and a send off then. Surely him kicking the ball away had nothing to do with his complaining "dissent" and it was not an 'action' in protesting a decision.
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Sounds like you were there too mate ... 😉😄
 
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