The Ref Stop

Miss-timed kicks

Mick.

Mick.

RefChat Addict
Div 1 game the other night. Good standard of play and no fouls for most of the game. Whites went 1-0 up in the tail end of the second half and passions were raised. A little bit of dissent from a player who claimed to have been fouled, but I didn't see it. Stepped approach shut him up.
A couple of minutes later two players attempted to volley a high ball. The resounding thwack of shin pad on shin pad made me cringe. As far as I could see, both of them had miss-timed their kicks and made contact with each other. The ball bounced towards the blue defenders, but who made contact with the ball? Cue calls for a foul from both sides. I shouted, "carry on - no foul." Both sides then continued to make appeals for the foul with the whites claiming that they must have kicked it as the ball went towards the blues. Again I shouted "get on with it" and the ball was eventually dribbled out for a corner. Looking back I wonder now if I should have let play continue as I did or take the contact as a simultaneous foul by both players and give a drop ball. I doubt that either side would have been happy with the suggestion that both players had committed a foul. Your thoughts?
 
The Ref Stop
Looking at your description, I would have given a drop ball to be save Mick.
 
This cropped up at my Ref Assoc (Barking & Dagenham) mid-week as we discussed some of the 'un-written laws' referees use
  • Half the room went with the LOTG - 2 fouls at the same time - drop ball
  • The other half of the room went with whoever was worse
At least the room was united on stopping play if nothing else :) ... I went with the drop ball option
 
In all honesty I couldn't say who was worst. Typical that at the time it never occurred to me that there were two fouls, otherwise I would have given a drop ball. I just thought, oh well they both need to be a bit more careful and neither was at fault.
 
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