Both dated 10/15/2003 Advice to Referees on the Laws of the Game Guide to Procedures For Referees, Assistant Referees and Fourth Officials
Posted on SOCREF by Jonathan Gingerich, some of the changes from the 2000 to the new 2003 ATR include the following sections: 1.7 1.8 3.3 3.4 3.14 3.16 3.19 5.1 5.6 5.13 5.14 5.15 8.5 11.15 12.8 12.11 12.17 12.28.1 12.28.3 12.31 12.38 13.1 13.10 14.7 19.1 19.2 19.5
3.3 MORE THAN THE ALLOWED NUMBER OF PLAYERS If, while the game is in progress, the referee finds that a team has more than the allowed number of players on the field, he must stop play, and then caution (yellow card) and remove the extra player from the field. The person to be removed and cautioned would be whoever was not listed on the team roster as a "starter" or who had not already been formally substituted for a "starter"; in other words, probably a named substitute. The restart is an indirect free kick at the place where the ball was when play was stopped (subject to the special circumstances described in Law 8). (If the same person had been discovered immediately when entering the field without the referee's permission, the restart would be a dropped ball. It is a matter of timing.) Could somebody explain the bold section for me please. Scott
If the referee notices the person entering when he does, the restart is a drop ball. If some amount of time has passed and the referee realizes there is an illegal person on the field, the restart is an indirect free kick.
In other words, catching the player as s/he enters constitutes outside interference, hence drop ball. OTOH, catching this after an unknown period of time, the extra player results in an IFK for the opposition if you stop play for the intrusion. Funny story from a recent HS game. Team A has over a dozen subs on the sideline. They are being hammered. I got lax in counting the subs late in the game. After another goal scored by Team B, Coach A calls for a sub. I look over and there's no one at midfield, but a player is leaving. He explains (with deep chagrin) that he has to take a player off because he has too many on the pitch. No card necessary, the look on his face when he realised that his team had gotten scored upon despite the extra player was enough.
I was AR on a game where both teams subbed on a goal kick, with one of the teams winding up with too many players (unfortunately, with the goal kick on the opposite end, the CR turned away and both he and the other AR became focused on restarting with the goal kick). However, the opposite coach, being only a few feet away from me, picked up on something being wrong almost immediately and became positively apoplectic upon noticing the other team had too many players, screaming "Ref, red has 11 players! Ref! Ref! Red has 11 players, Ref!" The CR ignored him for awhile. Finally, after the ball goes out of play, the CR turns aggravatedly towards the coach, "Red's supposed to have 11 players, Coach! What in the world's wrong with you?" "Uh. No, I mean red's got 12 players! They've got too many - 12 players!" I could hardly stop laughing long enough to let the coach know his team only had 10 players on the field.