The Ref Stop

Junior/Youth stupid assistant - his behaviour helps his son to be sent off

JH said:
Fine, that situation went well for you. Next time maybe it won't and maybe you'll end up with a couple of dissent cautions and a goal instead of a ceremonial free-kick. Sometimes you have to protect yourself, especially at grass roots when players are not going to hold back if they think you've wronged them. It's just like allowing a goal from a pass back to the keeper after an injury, you should allow the goal, there's nothing you can do in law, but if you don't want a riot, you need to improvise.
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I think you're working off a wrong initial assumption there. Players aren't all as stupid as some on this forum would claim - they know when they've been disadvantaged in the form of a foul and they know that quick free kicks exist. If you disallow a QFK without a good reason, all you're going to do is change which team is annoyed with you. And what's more, you'll change it from the team that committed the foul and have no real grounds for complaint, to the team that was already disadvantaged and are 100% correct is saying you've cheated them out of a good goalscoring chance.
 
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I went down the wrong path talking in general about quick free-kicks, my mental image was the one that I gave recently when I was on the spot with the ball and they asked me. I assume the players thought it was ceremonial, despite me not saying or doing anything - which is when I am saying I should absolutely not have said 'yes'.
 
GraemeS said:
I think you're working off a wrong initial assumption there. Players aren't all as stupid as some on this forum would claim - they know when they've been disadvantaged in the form of a foul and they know that quick free kicks exist. If you disallow a QFK without a good reason, all you're going to do is change which team is annoyed with you. And what's more, you'll change it from the team that committed the foul and have no real grounds for complaint, to the team that was already disadvantaged and are 100% correct is saying you've cheated them out of a good goalscoring chance.
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This is my main issue with the "no quick free kicks near the penalty area" school of thought. I'm quite happy to stop a quick free kick if I need to and I have a valid reason i.e. kick not taken from the correct place etc. And I admit that the closer to the penalty area we get the stricter I am on enforcing things like the ball being in the correct place, but I struggle with the idea of inventing an imaginary reason to stop a team taking a quick one.

Of course I can count the number of quick free kicks I've had in my games on one hand, but I've stopped more than a few when they've milled around and waited for me to get there before asking if they can take it quick.
 
For me if they take the free kick before I get there, and if it is anywhere near the edge of the penalty area I will be getting there very quickly (even with these knees), that's fine. Once I'm there unless they ask me immediately if they can take it quickly it is on the whistle.

As others have said, the main problem here is blowing the whistle. In doing that are saying that it was a "ceremonial" free kick, and the expectation there is that everyone is ready before you let them take it. Law says that the whistle is needed to: ...

• restart play for:
••free kicks when the appropriate distance is required
••penalty kicks

So in using the whistle you are saying that the appropriate distance is required, but then let them take it before managing the required distance. It isn't wrong in law, but I would say it is inadvisable. Certainly you wouldn't see any senior referees do this, and I very much doubt that any referee coach who has operated at a high level would advise it. Coaching these days, certainly in England anyway, is all about seeing the game to a safe conclusion and no surprises, and allowing this free kick risked the safe conclusion and was almost certainly a surprise to all.
 
Agreeing with anyone indicating 'a big no no' for use of the whistle to restart a QFK :egg:
 
This thread has gone around the houses a bit.
I am reminded of the importance of movement.

If you blow a DFK and move towards the position of the offence you are already giving a sign you are taking control of the situation and restart.

If you sprint to the FK position you are obviously taking control. When to do this is an important skill and something I am trying to learn.

If you move away then it’s clear you are not getting involved.

To subtly move to the ideal position to ask the taker if they want it on the whistle is an art, it only works with higher level players and to pull it off you have to be perfect - i.e. no confusing hand signals, no standing over the ball - basically once a season if that.
 
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santa sangria said:
To subtly move to the ideal position to ask the taker if they want it on the whistle is an art, it only works with higher level players and to pull it off you have to be perfect - i.e. no confusing hand signals, no standing over the ball - basically once a season if that.
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I have never understood the desire of some referees to ask the team if they want to take it quickly. We know they want to do that because they do it. All we have to do is not jump in too soon and mislead the opponents into thinking it will be ceremonial.
 
I would say, you're not obliged to wait for the keeper, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't.

I always give a shout to the keeper, saying something like "it's direct/indirect keeper!" or maybe "on my whislte/signal keeper!"

If you blow your whistle and he isn't ready, then it's on him and he has no come back because you've given him a shout to basically let him know that you're about to commence a restart of play.

Bit of common sense helps you keep match control, and avoids a sticky situation.
 
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