We don’t know the question to Dave though - he could have been asked “is it DOGSO downgrade…” or that might have been implied
Tbf, I introduced the “no attempt to play the ball” line in my question, which was as follows:
“Good evening,
I am a referee and have a question about an incident from one of my games, which I hope you can help me with.
The incident was as follows:
An attacker with the ball ran past the goalkeeper to the goal line before cutting the ball back to a teammate two yards from the goal line. As the second player went to roll the ball into the goal a defender behind him shouted "leave it!" This put the player off and he missed the ball completely. The defender then cleared the ball.
Since the shout put the attacker off I stopped play and awarded an indirect free kick on the goal area line. However, I am not sure whether I was right in the action I took against the offending player. He clearly prevented a goal, so I dismissed him for this. The player's action denied an obvious goal and a free kick resulted.
However, a colleague believes I was wrong because no actual offence was committed against the player. The game was stopped to caution him for unsporting behaviour, and a free kick is the resulting restart not a direct result of the player's action.
His offence was more blatant than a trip because he made no attempt whatsoever to play for the ball. My match control was in doubt because the other team were very upset at the player's actions. This made me feel that I was right to dismiss him.
Please can you clarify for me, was I right to send the player off?
Kind regards,
Mark”
