AboutJohn Cummings Expertise Do you have a call made by the referee in last week`s match puzzling you? Are you a referee who may not be certain that what was done was the right thing to do? I shall be glad to entertain any questions about officiating soccer. The more the players, coaches and supporters understand the referee and his/her decisions, the more fun we can have on the pitch.
Experience After coaching my son's travel team, I have been USSF State Referee, State Assessor, Assignor and State Instructor in addition to having been a college NISOA referee,a NISOA clinician, a NISOA assessor and a high school referee.
Question I was playing in a game last week and the ref called a foul on one of our players when he went up for a header. When we asked the ref what the call was he said it was "Trickery." I've been playing for well over 15 years and have NEVER heard of this foul before (in fact I don't recall reading about it during the several occasions that I have glanced at FIFA's Laws of the Game). Could you perhaps shed some light on this for me? I believe that even if this was a call the ref can make, he shouldn't fault a player or team who has found a way to outsmart their opponents while still adhering to the rules of the game!
Answer Depends...
From your description, I believe the referee may have used the wrong word. If your teammate shouted, "I've got it" so as to make the opponent back off of the ball, then that may be seen as trickery. The proper term for it is "Unsporting Behavior." A ball is the air should be available equally to either team, and calling off the opponent who may think it was one of his teammates saying it, is unfair and unsporting - even a bit of trickery.
The law does address trickery in the "Pass-back" from a field player to that player's keeper with the foot deliberately. If the field player chips the ball up to himself and heads it to the keeper so as to circumvent the law, that is trickery. This is the only place I have seen the term "trickery" used in the discussions of the laws of the game.
So from what I understand from your question, I think the ref probably meant "unsporting behavior" when he/she said "trickery."
Hope your season has gone well and continues to improve. Have fun on the pitch.
