Scenario 1
In a 12U match, Red #9 attempts to pass the ball to a teammate. The ball hits the referee and goes directly out of play over the touchline. The referee should:
- Award a throw in to the opposing team
- Drop the ball to one player on the Red team where the ball hit the referee
- Drop the ball to one player on the Red team where Red #9 last touched it
- Award an indirect free kick to Red
Answer
#1 Neither team were on a promising attack when the ball hit the referee, nor did the ball did go directly into a goal, and the team in possession did not change. The Laws do not call for a dropped ball when it goes directly out of play after hitting the referee. Law 9 states, “The ball is in play at all other times when it touches a match official and when it rebounds off a goalpost, crossbar, or corner flag post and remains on the field of play.” This is similar to the ball hitting the crossbar before going directly over the goal line.
Scenario 2
In a 12U match, Red #5 attempts to pass the ball to Red #7. The ball hits the referee and changes direction, going towards Red #3 who controls it. Red #3 then passes it back to a defending teammate, who then resets play for Red. The referee should:
- Award an indirect free kick to Red
- Drop the ball to one player on the Red team where the ball hit the referee
- Drop the ball to one player on the Red team where Red #9 last touched it
- Allow play to continue
Answer
#4 The referee allows play to continue for the same reasons as in scenario #1. Possession did not change and a promising attack did not begin. Many of you will remember when the referee was a part of the field like “a blade of grass”, this is still true in some circumstances. Law 9 was changed out of fairness for when a team is negatively effected by the ball hitting the referee.
