Did anyone see the whistle and restart with a drop ball in the 70th minute of the Chelsea v Liverpool game today? Mess of a scrum involving four players, two on the ground. Center stopped play with a whistle, restarted with a drop ball. Hmmm. Not sure I understand this one. Thanks.
I'm going with an the whistle being blown accidently. Other than that I saw it, and have no clue. Ridiculously boring game. R
just guessing, but i didn't think it was inadvertent in the real sense of the word. i think he saw a mess of a situation about to erupt and just stopped play. he didn't believe he had a foul for a push (i believe it was gerrard) but didn't want to call a dangerous play on the player on the ground (i believe it was lampard) and so he said no foul on either and gave a drop ball while telling everyone to calm down. call it proactive safety that probabably was unnecessary. it was an interesting call but something to think about. he could have let play go another second and then would have been able to call lampard for the dangerous play if he didn't manage to get up in that time, but there was a decent chance he'd end up taking a boot in the head by then as well. i might have gone ahead and called the dangerous play just to be able to point in one direction (particularly since it was at midfield and unlikely to be of any consequence regardless of the direction he pointed), but i can at least see where he's coming from. so, he doesn't have a foul or a direction to point, so he says inadvertent and has a drop ball. but, again, i thought he clearly meant to blow the whistle and he came in immediately telling everyone to take it down a notch. he then processed it and decided he didn't actually have a foul yet.
while i have received disagreement from out british friends in other discussions on stopping play without issuing a caution, the atr at 5.7 states that the ref can stop play for whatever reason he wants, and uses as an example, stopping play to warn, but not caution, players nearing misconduct. restart with a db. this situation, in this match, would seem to fit our atr's advice.
Ah, there it is. Thanks ref47. Guess you had to be there to know if the center actually did this (verbal warning to one of the four players). Everyone seemed to the smiling and chuckling. For those who wish to see the ATR 5.7 reference: "... However, the referee also has the power to stop play for other reasons, including misconduct for which the referee intends only to warn the player regarding behavior and not to issue a caution. In these circumstances, the referee should take care that ordering such a stoppage would not disadvantage the opposing team. As the stoppage will not have ocurred for a foul or misconduct, play would be restarted with a dropped ball." I wonder, given this is a USSF intepretation, does this apply to the EPL?
The real meat of this ATR quote comes from Law 8, which states: "A dropped ball is a way of restarting the match after a temporary stoppage which becomes necessary, while the ball is in play, for any reason not mentioned elsewhere in the Laws of the Game." Thus the restart for a stoppage not covered in the Laws is a dropped ball, no matter where the game is played.
Yeah, but I wouldn't do what people are suggesting - stopping play just to warn. Better to hold up a goal kick or something than stop play. Trust me, I've done it, and it looks AWFUL. Not to mention you have to go through a restart - which is a time when conflicts tend to arise anyway (possession, location, players, etc.). By stopping play when there's no real reason to, you are just drawing attention to yourself and the conflict instead of managing it in a way which does not disrupt the game. I think what the referee did in the CHE-LIV game was good. The whistle(s) immediately bring the situation down a notch and allow time to sort things out and prevent conflicts or injuries. While you're getting everyone up and making sure everything's okay, you can go through what happened and figure out some explanation and restart which is fair. It's preventative refereeing in a sense - stopping a dangerous situation, whether or not an infraction has occured, before something REALLY bad happens and you've got all sorts of crap to deal with. I have not seen the clip, so all of this is conjectural, but I am wondering if any of the players/managers had an issue with it. I know I ask that question a lot, but I think it is important to look at player/coach reactions to gauge whether something was done "right" or not.
I've done it (just once), and far from looking "AWFUL", it worked to a T. Everyone could see the two players were jawing and about to go at it, and just as much everyone could see there was no foul to be called. Tempers needed to be calmed, and it was not much of a surprise to anyone when I hammered the whistle and gave both players a butt-chewing. Nobody had any complaints about the drop ball restart (it was near midfield).
gk, good example of when this might work. if you wait for the two to actually come to blows/push-shove, now you need to issue card(s). by stopping play you get to intervene before it is necessary to resort to the cards.
Umm if you're talking about the same Chelsea - Liverpool match I just watched on Tivo yesterday (0-0 draw), I believe there was an injury that he stopped play for wasn't there? Maybe I've got this confused with a different match but I thought someone had been down and they even, on camera, waived off the incoming trainers? Am I wrong. If this is the same match then there's something else I noticed about that D/B. The Liverpool player won the ball, however it appeared he did so by kicking the ball before it ever hit the ground. Shouldn't that be called back or is that now being treated like a throw-in infringement (i.e. let it go unless it's really egregious)?
If it was due to injury, I missed it. Sounds plausable. I don't have the game saved on my DVR anymore, so.... If this was the reason, the timing was fortunate with four players hacking away to get the ball. Quick thinking by Mr. Riley. Two birds with one stone.
if play had been stopped for a SERIOUS injury, the player would have needed to leave the pitch. i did not see anyone leave. and we all know that you only stop play for a serious injury, not a slight injury. what it appeared to me was that one or two players went down, without a foul, and others were kicking at the ball aggressively. i believe the ref stopped play BEFORE things got out of hand and anyone was injured. notice he gave the "calm down" sign; hands moving up and down with palms downward.
Right. And then he brought on substitutes, and gestured towards the sideline when it looked like he was explaining his call. It was all a little confusing.