A&H

Yellow Card for Shirt Pulling

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boblardo

Active Member
Level 5 Referee
When should a yellow card be issued for Shirt Pulling?

Had an incident last night, red player running through the midfield at the half way line, goes past blue player who pulled his shirt to slow him down. he had around 6 blue players in front of him still so i awarded a free kick and had a little word with the offender

When should a yellow card be shown for shirt pulling?
 
The Referee Store
Once he's gone past him, beat him and then gets pulled back, 99% of the time it's got to be a caution IMO. Especially as most of the time in these situations they are deliberately, cynically stopping a rather dangerous attack.
 
boblardo said:
When should a yellow card be issued for Shirt Pulling?

Had an incident last night, red player running through the midfield at the half way line, goes past blue player who pulled his shirt to slow him down. he had around 6 blue players in front of him still so i awarded a free kick and had a little word with the offender

When should a yellow card be shown for shirt pulling?
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As @Jake Northwood said stopping a dangerous attack or promising attack. It is often regarded as a "Tactical foul" and 9 times out of 10 the player knows what he is doing and almost expects a caution.
 
Hi
Why has the player done it. Most time it is for tactical reasons to break up a promising attack which makes it USB
In your example it reads like it was a reaction rather than a tactical foul.
 
Kes said:
A trip or careless challenge, resulting in a free kick is one thing. Pulling someone's shirt to slow him down, is deliberate and unsporting. Yellow card every time for me...... ;) :)
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I completely agree, shirt pulling gets a caution from me almost every time for exactly this reason. It's just not playing the game!
 
question then ....
i had a game where blue attacker is standing still with his back to goal and ball at his feet, yellow defender comes in behind him and grabs a chunk of his shirt. this does'nt affect blues balance, or his ability to keep control of the ball, the defender then lets go of his shirt after what must be 2-3 seconds only, and blue goes mental wanting a penalty ( he was inside the PA )
was i right or wrong to award nothing ? additional info... blue made no attempt to turn, run etc, had an easy lay off available to a midfielder but chose to stop play to appeal for the penalty
 
richard ramjane said:
question then ....
i had a game where blue attacker is standing still with his back to goal and ball at his feet, yellow defender comes in behind him and grabs a chunk of his shirt. this does'nt affect blues balance, or his ability to keep control of the ball, the defender then lets go of his shirt after what must be 2-3 seconds only, and blue goes mental wanting a penalty ( he was inside the PA )
was i right or wrong to award nothing ? additional info... blue made no attempt to turn, run etc, had an easy lay off available to a midfielder but chose to stop play to appeal for the penalty
Click to expand...

Based on what you describe, I'd have done the same as you and just let it go. Had the defender impeded the blue attacker's movement in any way then I'd have awarded the penalty. Unless I'm much mistaken, shirt pulling is classed as "holding" but which is mentioned in the LOTG as "includes the act of preventing him from moving past or around using the hands, the arms or the body". So, if in your opinion this didn't take place, then I'd say no offence has actually been committed. Just my opinion though..... ;) :)
 
1) stopping a promising attack. It's the 'tactical foul' - is there a good attack or not?
2) If it's done with quite a bit of force....ie grabs a hold of the shirt and quite roughly pulls him to the ground.

richard ramjane said:
question then ....
i had a game where blue attacker is standing still with his back to goal and ball at his feet, yellow defender comes in behind him and grabs a chunk of his shirt. this does'nt affect blues balance, or his ability to keep control of the ball, the defender then lets go of his shirt after what must be 2-3 seconds only, and blue goes mental wanting a penalty ( he was inside the PA )
was i right or wrong to award nothing ? additional info... blue made no attempt to turn, run etc, had an easy lay off available to a midfielder but chose to stop play to appeal for the penalty
Click to expand...

Sounds like there was no impact upon play. So, no foul. The laws used to state that referees should ignore 'trifling' infringements. While no longer in the laws, the principle applies. There's nothing wrong with having a handful of shirt - it's when it impacts the player that there's a foul (and especially in the PA, I'd want to see an effect on play - ie if it holds his movement back but he was nowhere near play anyway, I wouldn't want to see that called)
 
Kes said:
Based on what you describe, I'd have done the same as you and just let it go. Had the defender impeded the blue attacker's movement in any way then I'd have awarded the penalty. Unless I'm much mistaken, shirt pulling is classed as "holding" but which is mentioned in the LOTG as "includes the act of preventing him from moving past or around using the hands, the arms or the body". So, if in your opinion this didn't take place, then I'd say no offence has actually been committed. Just my opinion though..... ;) :)
Click to expand...

CapnBloodbeard said:
1) stopping a promising attack. It's the 'tactical foul' - is there a good attack or not?
2) If it's done with quite a bit of force....ie grabs a hold of the shirt and quite roughly pulls him to the ground.



Sounds like there was no impact upon play. So, no foul. The laws used to state that referees should ignore 'trifling' infringements. While no longer in the laws, the principle applies. There's nothing wrong with having a handful of shirt - it's when it impacts the player that there's a foul (and especially in the PA, I'd want to see an effect on play - ie if it holds his movement back but he was nowhere near play anyway, I wouldn't want to see that called)
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thanks, the fella was so adamant with his protests, which continued well after the game, we even had a chat about it on the way back to the changing rooms. i gave him my version of the above, i.e no impact on his movement or ability to play the ball, but he wasnt listening, nor was he open to any suggestion of that .... it ended up with me putting through a misconduct report for some of the stuff he said after that... but even so , there was a little doubt in my mind that i was correct in selling it that way
 
In similar scenarios I've found that if I get a chance to say to the offender that by him holding the shirt like that makes me think "is that a penalty/fk?", so if it happens again the outcome might be different.
 
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