I think this is exactly what the IFAB asked for when it made its change. The referee is 100% in the right, based on the new Law. In fact, I'd argue he is obligated to do this based on the text. But no one else asked for it, so you're not going to see this in major competitions. Hopefully that means IFAB will realize the error of its way and this will ultimately be taken off the books. Otherwise you're just going to see wild discrepancies in application.
Hasn't IFAB learned about automatic mandatory cautions starting way back when? Seems there was a Jr World event that was spoiled by automatic cautions, and IFAB backtracked and essentially said, "That's not what we meant to happen." And then the "GK off the line" caution in KFTPM was another one. "Oops, let's fix that."
Well, the language in the Laws gives the referee wiggle room so it’s not automatic. But then again the wiggle room makes the law change pointless, so who knows? And yes a youth WC had a rule where if a player physically touched the ball at all when it was his opponent’s restart, there was an automatic caution. The rule was applied literally. I thought it was comically bad. Some people liked it. 2003 or 2005?
You wouldn't. But why would you be delaying on a match without comms? If comms isn't working, then VAR isn't working...
Ah....so in a match w/o VAR you'd just pop the flag. ....It's been a while since I've been on the pitch so be gentle. Edit....just pop the flag and let CR correct or not!
Which reminds me ... if, per your post in the other thread, you had sons playing HS soccer in '84, then you're even older than I am. Makes me feel spry.
Spry is not a word that one likes to hear when reaching a certain age. One son has been in the 0-40 league since his late 30's.....15 yrs playing for the team in my sig. If not for this Ref Forum I'd have to rely on the Fans and Pundits for my info and nobody wants that!
Professional players really don’t seem to like the new drop ball rule. I think it’s going to lead to some really difficult moments in MLS next season. https://streamable.com/q69b7 Swiss player plays a bad cross that would have gone straight to a Danish player and likely started a counter. The cross is so poor it hits the ref and bounces to a Swiss attacker. So ref has to stop play and... give it back to Switzerland. Danish players react how you’d might expect. It all gets sorted out in a sporting way. But for anyone (you know, like IFAB) that thought this would avoid manufactured restarts, they were sorely mistaken.
Except that this is an incorrect decision to stop play to begin with isn't it? Since the contact with the referee did not change possession (ball went to Swiss player) - it only changed what possession would have been?
Law 9 The ball is out of play when: it has wholly passed over the goal line or touchline on the ground or in theair play has been stopped by the referee it touches a match official, remains on the field of play and: a team starts a promising attack or the ball goes directly into the goal or the team in possession of the ball changes In all these cases, play is restarted with a dropped ball.
Yea sure, technically you are correct. But something like 99% of DB's have gotten better, a few rare freak occurrences like this doesn't change that.
You really think so? I’ve yet to have one that I felt was “better.” I honestly don’t think this was that big of a problem. It’s not like every drop ball in the past led to controversy or contention.
A certain turnover changed to keeping possession 30 yards from goal. You wouldn’t classify that as starting a promising attack? I see what you’re driving at. Maybe it’s not a traditional promising attack. But believing this should be ‘play on’ means relying on a very strict and narrow reading of the text at the expense of what was the obvious spirit of the change. The whole point was to prevent teams benefiting from the ball going off the referee. That happened here. Your question does demonstrate, once again, that IFAB did a poor job with constructing new text.
This was a law change in search of a problem. I actually position myself differently now on corners. I used to start a step or two inside with younger age groups doing solo games. Not anymore. I am very conscious of not getting deep and inside the PA for fear of getting clipped on a fluke. I don’t know that I have been hit that deep but I can’t afford to take that chance now. We would tell new refs to stay closer to play and not worry about being hit. It’s better to stay closer and get hit than be too far from play. Now we have to coach them to stay farther from play. Or be more nimble. No one was clamoring about this as a problem. IFAB fixed something that wasn’t broken. Shocker.
I position myself near the top of the PA on the side the CK is being taken from, about halfway from center to touch. My focus is on the area near the keeper, unless I think a short corner is coming. I have this fear that one of these days that CK is going to get shanked and hit me right in the noggin, pop up airborne in the PA starting a mad shoving match while I'm on the ground. Now at least I can sell a DB at my location.
From the grassroots perspective, this was absolutely necessary. Coaches and players were clueless about proper etiquette, so you'd have 9-year-olds hacking away. At higher levels ... well, tell you what -- let's look at this one example. 1. The ball hit the ref -- the Law change wouldn't affect that. 2. The ball bounced to a Swiss attacker -- the Law change wouldn't affect that. So the ball was given to the team that would've had it anyway, but now Denmark has a little more time to reset. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems they're upset that the ref was in the way, not the Law change. And the players are just whiners. Quel surprise.
Totally disagree. As a referee, where etiquette dictated something, in hundreds of young games I never had a problem with the teams doing the right thing once they were given just modest encouragement. (The only time I did was a knucklehead in a 16U game.) nor did I ever have a problem with contested DBs. There is no more hacking awaY at the DB than happens dozens of time during the game. (Nor do I think IFAB was thinking at all about kids games when they made that law change.)
IFAB was definitely thinking of this aspect of it: But I've seen other refs rave about this change -- I think the Minnesota people linked in another thread here were excited.
I didn't mean to suggest that the referee should have allowed play to continue, just that - as you point out - this seems to be a loophole that was avoidable