A&H

Serious Foul Play or not?

SM

SM

The avuncular one
Game has broken down and is just attack and defence with no midfield (ref tennis!) when half way through the second half, this happens:



What do you do?
 
The Referee Store
Play on IMO if no chance of contact as he is not endangering an opponents safety. Maybe IDFK and YC for reckless play but definitely not a red IMO.
 
I've always found incidents like that a particularly murky area, on one hand a player lunging in and can be deemed out of control, but if he's not made any contact of any sort can it really be deemed a foul.
 
Exactly my thought so surely it's play on, not foul and no-one's safety endangered it can not be a foul or any form of card unless you were feeling harsh.
 
This is a real incident. The lunge was a horrible two footed up in the air affair.

Nobody was close enough to be affected (2 meters or so, but close enough that spectators would not be sure if that fact), the challenge was into space. However, that nobody is hurt is not always the prime reason for action.

I am interested in other opinions before i tell you what I did.

If I told you who made the challenge matty, you would know them! Have form
 
A person's form should not affect your decision, in a game situation and off that situation I'd probably give an IDFK and a stern talking to/possible YC dependent on how the game is being played and whether they're a persistent offender.
 
Assuming that blue player had no chance of competing for the ball and red player was not risking doing harm to himself, play on but have a word with the red player along the lines of good job there was no one around when you did that kind of comment.

Please don't tell us that you cautioned the blue player for unsporting behaviour for trying to get an opponent booked :)
 
Aled said:
A person's form should not affect your decision.
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Indeed lol

I don't want to appear condescending here aled, but I would say speak to me in a couple of seasons on that one. Certain players you come to know very quickly because they do what could be considered crazy things on a regular basis. You know their reputation, you ref them, you know who they are from their behaviour before you ask their name. Every league has them. Not to say that influences your decision making process, but it's a universal constant!
 
Ben, I'm sure it would, feel free to pm me ;). I will be honest and say that when I have been confronted with this very incident I have blown for a free kick and stated that it's for playing in a dangerous manner and if the other player hadn't stopped he wouldn't be on the pitch now. Had it twice and both times I've had no real arguments, but the other player has always been close by rather than a metre or two away.
 
No offence. If there is no challenge by two players for the ball, there is no foul. If the two footed jump is done so that there is no dangerous play (i.e. the opposition player is not close enough to be endangered) no free kick. Play on.
 
I went with idfk and yc. It was accepted by both teams without further comment during the game. Difficult to convey just how out of control the lunge was, it looked horrible. But of course there was nobody there in the space he did the challenge into. When I called him over the player was told if there was anyone closer to that challenge it was a straight red

After the game I was chatting to several blue players and they said we thought you had a good game but you should have sent that boy off. Explained why I had gone just caution and they accepted it.

I have posted this elsewhere and the response was 50-50 red or caution.
 
Hard to know what any of us would have done at the time had we been in your situation, monkey but, solely based on your original description, it shows just how difficult it is to apply the lotg correctly on each and every occasion
 
I find this one a bit of a grey area. It's not expressly covered in the laws.

I have had these and I have let it go (play on) sometimes given just an idfk with a word and of course this one. Temperature of the match played a part in the caution, calmed everything down.

What I really wanted to see was how many would go red. None of you guys. :)
 
In the law on the direct free kick list there is a lot of 'or attempts' such as 'kicks or attempts to kick an opponent'. However it just says 'tackles and opponent' not 'or attempts to tackle'. On this basis, and from what I can understand from the diagram no offence was committed, but when the ball next goes out of play I'd have a quiet word with the player to warn him.
 
Supermonkey said:
It came under playing in a dangerous manner.
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In which case that's an indirect free kick and you can't give a red card because it's not one of the seven direct free kick offences committed with excessive force (thus not 'serious foul play').
 
Supermonkey said:
After the game I was chatting to several blue players and they said we thought you had a good game but you should have sent that boy off. Explained why I had gone just caution and they accepted it.
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Always good to hear players accepting your explanation, shows that the understand and respect your call.
 
From your description I'd be playing on. A player can do cartwheels to the ball for all I care if the nearest opponent is 2 metres away... 2 metres is a big space on a football pitch and I wouldn't be punishing anything if there's no clear contact/no other player near the ball.
 
It is unless he also dives into the challenge!

Then you potentially have a broken leg
 
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