Interesting happening in a Iran v Denmark friendly in Hong Kong. A spectator blew a whistle, players thought it was halftime and and Iranian picked up the ball in his penalty area and handed it to the ref. Ref had no choice but to give a penalty. Luckily the Danes did the sporting thing and deliberately missed the penalty. Iran went on to win 1-0. Would be interesting if it happened in a non-friendly. Anyone had anything similar? In a youth game I once had a boy pick up the ball, thinking that it had gone out for a corner, and throw it to the other team. The opponents (on the urging of their coach) missed the penalty on purpose.
Happened last year in a Dallas Burn (MLS league) match. I believe the final score was 3-1, and the penalty was the one goal (for the visitor's....Dallas's own fan had blown the whistle in his own area). I could be wrong on the exact details, but I am positive that this happened in Dallas last year.
Yep I am pretty sure it was that game, I remember watching it. Gus St. Silva was in the middle, and he had no choice but to call it. Its something you have to do. If I remember correctly, you hear Gus yell "thats not my whistle," but it was too late. There is little the referee can do there and the player must take responsibilty. Blitz
Re: Yep Yet another occasion that isnt covered in the LOTG....I dont agree that there is nothing you can do.... How can you penalize(particularly give a PK) to a team for something that was not an attempt to cheat or even a foul? The call is DELIBERATE HANDLING! if everyone can tell that the play was caused by an outside force........drop ball. By the way..Shame on the team that actually scored on this BS. But they shouldnt be put in that position anyway.
I remember a thread we had going last year before the crash that dealt with "outside interference". It was an interesting debate about where to draw the line between clear interference as opposed to something the players should be keen enough to ignore. In the Iran/Denmark and Dallas matches, did players from both teams react to the whistle, or only the one player in each situation who actually handled the ball?
One might be able to stretch the law (and invoke Law 18) to call the whistle an outside agent when dealing with kids and possibly some adult leagues (I'm thinking when a referee at an adjoining field uses the same whistle as you), but it would be an awfully hard sell at the professional level.
Even professional players can be fooled..........the way this is described...they all were. How is this any less fair then giving a BS PK so that the attacking team can kick it into the stands? Hopefully!
Greyhnd, in the Dallas match in question, the whistle had been an issue throughout the match, and if I remember correctly, Gus tried to get security to find the culprit at halftime (the penalty was in the second half). Again, I'm not sure of the exact details, but I do know that players had been playing through this annoying 'outside interference' throughout the match, so when a player finally handled the ball in the area late in the game (I believe around the 80th minute), how is the referee to determine if this was an honest mistake or a deliberate act disguised as an honest mistake? Remember, the attackers didn't stop in this instance. Even if it was an honest mistake caused by the outside interference, it still stopped the opponents from a legitimate chance in the attacking penalty area. In cases like this, despite what our gut instincts might be, I believe the only option is to award the penalty. It is up to the opponents to determine how the want to handle the situation (Denmark and the MLS team which I don't recall obviously handled it differently).
I see.......Not made clear in the orignal post.......Thanks for the clarification...You used to lurk less and post more!
Although I do agree with you, it certainly would be a tough pill to swallow if the situation also resulted in a sendoff for DOGSO. Now there's a dose of tough love!