This comes from today's London Guardian Online trivia column ("The Knowledge": http://football.guardian.co.uk/theknowledge/story/0,13854,1191114,00.html) What would you, as a referee, do in this situation? "Denmark v Iran in Hong Kong 2003 to be precise. "The first half was winding down and an Iranian player mistook a whistle in the crowd for the referee's whistle." Whoops. "He was standing in the penalty area at the time and he promptly and politely picked up the ball and handed it to the referee - who promptly awarded Denmark a penalty." "Fortunately, Danish coach Morten Olsen had a quiet chat with Morten Wieghorst on the sideline, and he gently kicked the penalty well wide of the goal to the admiration of the crowd. Denmark went on to lose 1-0. A rare display of sportmanship." I agree that the Danish response was very sporting, but I really don't see any alternative for the CR, other than perhaps a drop ball in the penalty area, which a) might be hard to sell and b) could cause huge complications (I don't like doing drop balls at all, and one in the penalty area seems like a nightmare scenario). It seems like maybe the response should be tailored to the age level (I would never give a pk for this in a u-little game), but should an u-18 plyer (or an adult for that matter) know better? (I should also say that this anecdote comes in the context of a "stupid referee tricks discussion, and there are several instances of things that I could never imagine a competent ref doing....)
There are two ways within LOTG to deal with this: #1 Deliberate handling. PK. #2 Interference by an outside agent. The referee must have reached that decision prior to the handling. My hat is off to anyone who can sell that with a late whistle. DB. Know better? If a player is deceived, s/he is deceived.
I would NOT have any problem deciding to call interference by an outside agent if I heard a whistle and saw a player react to it.
I have had the "outside whistle" during an indoor game with a basketball tournament going on very close. I heard the whistle, players seemed to start slowing down and I immediately yelled "play on, that wasn't me". Players instantly went back to full speed. Don't think you can sell outside interference cause it was not on the field of play. No choice, its a PK, and I applaud the team taking the kick to do what they did.
Ask yourself this: "did the player deliberately handle the ball?" The easy answer is "yes, he picked it up with his hands". But the real answer is that he only picked it up because of that whistle. He had no intention of handling the ball during dynamic play. He only acted because of the outside whistle--which is an outside agent. With that said, referees have to be very careful and make sure this call (if it ever has to be made) is appropriate and sold correctly. Defenders could easily feign outside interference and pick the ball up to prevent a scoring opportunity. In the end, it's all a judgement call.
This situation is not uncommon at tournaments where players are often effected by whistles on nearby fields. A couple of years ago one of my whistles caused havoc on a match Scott Z was centering. If I feel that a whistle from a nearby field has interfered with play on my field, and a quick word will not suffice, I will blow my own whistle. Remember the restart when play is stopped for any other reason, not a foul, not an infraction, not misconduct or ball out of play, is a dropped ball. Sherman
From the FIFA Q & A: "A spectator blows a whistle and a defender inside his own penalty area picks up the ball, assuming that play has been stopped. What action does the referee take? He awards a penalty kick." What would I do? At these high levels, I would have to give the PK. Bad luck, but rules are rules. I guess they'll learn there really is no need to pick up the ball. Pass the ball to the ref with your foot, if you must.
Very true. And now that I think of it, this did happen (I believe two years ago) in an MLS game at Dallas. Luckily, the penalty did not affect the outcome. As a side note, the MLS Referee Handbook does have a section devoted to 'outside whistles'.
The difficult situation arises when the referee doesn't hear the other whistle. On one occasion I saw the last several defenders simultaneously stop playing thereby allowing the other team an easy goal. The defenders cited "a whistle" which wasn't mine. The attackers didn't hear it; neither I nor the AR heard it. So I allowed the goal. If it were to happen today, I would perform the same investigation. Before allowing the goal, I would call the captains and tell them what I saw/heard. If they can agree on what happened, then I will also agree with them.
Interestingly, ATR 9.2 addresses this by starting out saying "The Laws of the Game were not written to compensate for mistakes of players. If a spectator blows a whistle, and any player thinking it was the referee, handles the ball, the referee could award a direct free kick ( or penalty kick) to the opposing team..." It then refers us to Advice 5.5 (Trifling Offenses) and tells us to use common sense. Note, ATR says the referee "could" award a DFK not the referee "does" or "has to". The FIFA Q&A seems clear and the pk that was awarded should have been, but for those of us in the States doing lower level matches, we have an out in ATR.
This really is a unique and individual decision to be based on the context of play. I Don't know if there are any hard and fast rules here. Clearly, it is very much age sensitive. We would expect older player to know better. In most instances a PK should be awarded. However, I can think of a scenario where a defender traps a through ball with no pressure on him and turns and picks up the ball thinking there was offside.
The new Q&A changes this: "A spectator blows a whistle and a defender inside his own penalty area picks up the ball with his hands, assuming that play has been stopped. What action does the referee take? The referee should consider the whistle to be outside interference, stop the match and restart it with a dropped ball *.