A&H

Head injury

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dbo5ton

Member
Level 4 Referee
Morning chaps,

I had a head injury on the 85th minute, keeper defender and attacker all go up for a ball in the six yard box, keeper hits his own defender in head and down he goes. I blow and the keeper then hoofs it out for a corner.
head injury sorted I then restart with a drop ball. both teams are appealing for the corner. but I stood my ground and restarted with a drop ball. any advice on how to deal with it better?
 
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dbo5ton said:
Morning chaps,

I had a head injury on the 85th minute, keeper defender and attacker all go up for a ball in the six yard box, keeper hits his own defender in head and down he goes. I blow and the keeper then hoofs it out for a corner.
head injury sorted I then restart with a drop ball. both teams are appealing for the corner. but I stood my ground and restarted with a drop ball. any advice on how to deal with it better?
Click to expand...
If you had blown to stop play before the ball went out of play, the restart would be a dropped ball. If however, your whistle came after the ball had gone out for a corner, the restart would be a corner. The attacking team may chose to kick the corner out for a goal kick, or similar
Had the keeper gone down injured also, a dropped ball could have been justified as mandatory, regardless of the corner
Anyone disagree?
 
Big Cat said:
If you had blown to stop play before the ball went out of play, the restart would be a dropped ball. If however, your whistle came after the ball had gone out for a corner, the restart would be a corner. The attacking team may chose to kick the corner out for a goal kick, or similar
Had the keeper gone down injured also, a dropped ball could have been justified as mandatory, regardless of the corner
Anyone disagree?
Click to expand...
Until the last bit... had the keeper gone down injured also mandating a dropped ball?
 
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dbo5ton said:
Morning chaps,

I had a head injury on the 85th minute, keeper defender and attacker all go up for a ball in the six yard box, keeper hits his own defender in head and down he goes. I blow and the keeper then hoofs it out for a corner.
head injury sorted I then restart with a drop ball. both teams are appealing for the corner. but I stood my ground and restarted with a drop ball. any advice on how to deal with it better?
Click to expand...
"both teams are appealing for the corner."
"any advice on how to deal with it better?"

This should work:
"Guys, I stopped play before the ball was kicked for a corner so I have restart with a dropped ball. But nothing is stopping you let one of the defenders kick it out for a corner after I drop the ball."
 
Your decision was completely correct. However, I am always wary of restarting with a drop ball in the penalty area. If a player is down and the keeper has the ball I'll usually encourage him/her to kick it away before I stop play so that the drop ball is in a less sensitive area.
 
OIREF! said:
Your decision was completely correct. However, I am always wary of restarting with a drop ball in the penalty area. If a player is down and the keeper has the ball I'll usually encourage him/her to kick it away before I stop play so that the drop ball is in a less sensitive area.
Click to expand...

This, they dont have to obviously but a "do us a favor mate and kick it for a throw" most oblige
 
spuddy1878 said:
This, they dont have to obviously but a "do us a favor mate and kick it for a throw" most oblige
Click to expand...
Agreed. It's like those times when the keeper is holding the ball but is a bit winded - I'll ask if they're able to get the ball away from goal so I'm not doing a drop ball right in front of goal. Don't care if it goes out - just don't want to risk the other team competing the DB in front of goal. Never seen it happen - but I'll also drop it before they get the chance. But good refereeing is about prevention, after all.
 
Big Cat said:
If you had blown to stop play before the ball went out of play, the restart would be a dropped ball.
Click to expand...

In Law, if I understand correctly, the referee decides when play was stopped. The whistle is the signal. But we can state that play stopped prior to the whistle. It's just a very awkward sell to the oiks.

Strangely the LotG only say:

"Whistle
The whistle is needed to:...
• stop play:
••for a free kick or penalty kick
••if the match is suspended or abandoned
••at the end of each half"

There is no mention of using the whistle to stop play to deal with an accidental injury... though I guess it could come under "if the match is suspended".

Ah and there it is...

"Suspend
To stop a match for a period of time with the intention of eventually restarting play
e.g. fog, heavy rain, thunderstorm, serious injury"

....still not crystal clear... (really the LotG should to that list add a line about "stop play... for any other reason not mentioned in the LotG" to align with the dropped ball guidance.)


Anyway, I think this whistle timing scenario is evident at corners... there's jostling, you give a warning, not enough for a foul, then there's enough for a foul just before the ball is kicked, you go for the whistle, the ball is in the air, you blow - and then have to explain that you stopped play before the ball was kicked, even though the whistle came after... please tell me I am not the only one that has been there?
 
JamesL said:
Until the last bit... had the keeper gone down injured also mandating a dropped ball?
Click to expand...
Eh yeh, ur right. I'd mistaken the exception for leaving the FOP and wrongly substituted it with mandating a stoppage. That said, multiple players on the deck (particularly a keeper) usually gets a prompt stoppage in the interests of fair play
 
In reality the keeper didn't hoof it out for a corner, as that happened after the whistle so the corner simply never happened. It therefore has to be a dropped ball, and in my view the fairest thing here is dropping it for the keeper uncontested. Of course you can't mandate that, but you can offer it as a suggestion. I've done that loads, even after the law change, and not once has anyone refused and insisted on contesting it.
 
Bear in mind that you don't have to stand there waiting for the other team to decide what to do. Injury situation is resolved? Can drop it at the keeper's feet before the other team notices you're about to go (though you may want to use a quick 'in play' whistle when doing that).

Heck, I once dropped the ball to nobody when both teams were taking their sweet time working out what to do :cool::D
 
Had one last night from a corner, defender and attacker clashed heads and the ball was looping towards the back post. I blew the whistle straight away whilst the ball is in flight, I couldn't care less if an attacker was going to nod it in or not. Drop ball in front of the keeper and nobody contested.
 
CapnBloodbeard said:
Can drop it at the keeper's feet before the other team notices you're about to go (though you may want to use a quick 'in play' whistle when doing that).
Click to expand...
I feel very uncomfortable with this statement. You are deciding who is contesting the dropped ball by not giving one team a chance to contest it and in effect deciding the outcome of the dropped ball.

Law 8 "Any number of players may contest a dropped ball (including the goalkeepers); the referee cannot decide who may contest a dropped ball or its outcome."

I have dropped the ball in front of the keeper uncontested plenty times but it has always been a case of the opponents not wanting to contest it rather than not being given a chance to.
 
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one said:
I feel very uncomfortable with this statement. You are deciding who is contesting the dropped ball by not giving one team a chance to contest it and in effect deciding the outcome of the dropped ball.

Law 8 "Any number of players may contest a dropped ball (including the goalkeepers); the referee cannot decide who may contest a dropped ball or its outcome."

I have dropped the ball in front of the keeper uncontested plenty times but it has always been a case of the opponents not wanting to contest it rather than not being given a chance to.
Click to expand...
Used to do this all the time.......and as for "any number of players can contest a dropped ball".., well you'd be just daft doing that.
Might be a western thing but contested dropped balls just have to be mano el mano.....
 
No, the other team has the chance to contest. But if they're slow, why delay the game?
You don't need to invite the other team to contest.
 
CapnBloodbeard said:
No, the other team has the chance to contest. But if they're slow, why delay the game?
You don't need to invite the other team to contest.
Click to expand...
I agree if they are slow etc, just drop it and get on with it, but your original post said you’d just drop it at a keepers feet before the opposition even notices which in affect manipulates the scenario we are not supposed to manipulate
 
QuaverRef said:
I agree if they are slow etc, just drop it and get on with it, but your original post said you’d just drop it at a keepers feet before the opposition even notices which in affect manipulates the scenario we are not supposed to manipulate
Click to expand...
What does manipulating the scenario mean?
Here's what I'm talking about:
Keeper's getting his attention. I'm standing nearby with the ball, everyone else is standing around watching, as they normally do with an injury, having a chat, whatever. Keeper gets to his feet, trainer's still with him. Keeper shakes himself off, trainer jogs off the pitch. I stroll up to the keeper with ball in hand, ask if he's alright while he's still shaking himself off.

The opposition has had PLENTY of opportunity to decide if they want to contest the ball.

But if i'm standing there scratching my butt and looking around at the other team going 'whaddya wanna do?' then I'm inviting them to compete. Could that not also be seen as manipulating it? After all, the natural state when everybody was ready was that only the keeper was at the DB site.

So I don't see that I'm manipulating anything by preserving that status. I'm just not going to delay further, implicitly inviting a challenge.

If the players are all at the side getting a drink I'm not going to drop it in a way that's catching one team off guard.
 
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