A&H

How to get a free kick

Whilst you do a good job of mentioning various scenarios where referees typically communicate to players, we don't normally make a point of alerting the teams to ball in/out of play, other to flag or not flag as appropriate.
Do we not use “not gone”, “whole ball” or “still in” to communicate to players near us when on the line and it’s a tight call?

I’m all for communication to avoid scenarios that can challenge match control.
 
The Referee Store
Do we not use “not gone”, “whole ball” or “still in” to communicate to players near us when on the line and it’s a tight call?

I’m all for communication to avoid scenarios that can challenge match control.
I think you're right. At grassroots, where match control is so critical, 'easy wins' like this kind of communication are a good thing.

When working with comms at professional level, the vast majority of any talking from ARs will be for the benefit of the referee rather than the players. And towards the back end of last season, Step 1 officials were specifically advised to avoid all forms of 'player coaching' as some team bosses (especially in PL2) were getting annoyed by it ... as an example, referees were advising 'no foul' to players in situations where their manager would actually want them to foul!
 
I would only ever call "ball not gone, play on" if there was apparent disagreement or confusion between players on different teams trying to challenge/control the ball close to the line and it looked like the situation would benefit from me making confirming. I would almost immediately follow up by saying "whole ball needs to be over the line".
If one side is trying to use some skill or trick that is perfectly within the laws of the game and I interfere with their play, then I am assisting one side over the other.
We apply the laws and players play to the whistle.
 
I would only ever call "ball not gone, play on" if there was apparent disagreement or confusion between players on different teams trying to challenge/control the ball close to the line and it looked like the situation would benefit from me making confirming. I would almost immediately follow up by saying "whole ball needs to be over the line".
If one side is trying to use some skill or trick that is perfectly within the laws of the game and I interfere with their play, then I am assisting one side over the other.
We apply the laws and players play to the whistle.
The law doesn't require a whistle for a ball going out of play.

I wonder if there's another method of communication that we could use to audibly indicate if the ball is still in or not?
 
The law doesn't require a whistle for a ball going out of play.

I wonder if there's another method of communication that we could use to audibly indicate if the ball is still in or not?
Of course it doesn't, but if in doubt, play on.
 
Of course it doesn't, but if in doubt, play on.
Why wouldn't there be doubt? There's no mandatory audible signal to tell the players the ball is out - so by your logic, every time the ball is even remotely close, the players should be playing on.

Which raises the possibility of the ball being out, you assuming the players know it's out, but a defender runs up and blasts it away anyway. Why did he do that? Did he think the ball was in and was clearing it (absolutely reasonable), or did he think it was out but blasted it away to delay the restart (should be a caution)?
 
Why wouldn't there be doubt? There's no mandatory audible signal to tell the players the ball is out - so by your logic, every time the ball is even remotely close, the players should be playing on.

Which raises the possibility of the ball being out, you assuming the players know it's out, but a defender runs up and blasts it away anyway. Why did he do that? Did he think the ball was in and was clearing it (absolutely reasonable), or did he think it was out but blasted it away to delay the restart (should be a caution)?
Maybe cross wires here somewhat, but if a player is unsure if the ball is in or out, of course they should play on.
If a defender runs up and blasts the ball away and it is in my opinion very clearly out, then yeah, I'll book them. But, if in my opinion, the player genuinely believed the ball was still in play and boots it a mile away, then no action.
 
The law doesn't require a whistle for a ball going out of play.

I wonder if there's another method of communication that we could use to audibly indicate if the ball is still in or not?
Audible is a possibility. But visual is a mandatory. In the OP, there's an AR literally two metres from the ball and he's not flagging for a throw in ... maybe that might give the players a clue whether the ball has gone out of play? :rolleyes: :)
 
Audible is a possibility. But visual is a mandatory. In the OP, there's an AR literally two metres from the ball and he's not flagging for a throw in ... maybe that might give the players a clue whether the ball has gone out of play? :rolleyes: :)
If the player in that position is focusing on the AR rather than the ball, they're not doing their job IMO.

We talk about "playing to the whistle", ignoring the ball in favour of trying to work out if the AR is flagging or not is the exact opposite of that! Plus, let's be honest, we've all chosen not to signal obvious restarts on occasion - if the ball is out and one team has deliberately put it there, it's not impossible that the AR would choose not to signal.
 
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