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 this IS MY QUESTION : a PLAYER FROM THE OPPOSING TEAM FALLS ON THE BALL IN THE PENALTY AREA WHILE ON HIS BACK HE KICKS THE BALL AND IT ROLLS INTO THE NET FOR A GOAL , question IS HE ALLOWED TO PLAY THE BALL WHILE LAYING ON HIS BACK OUR PLAYERS DID NOT KICK THE BALL OUT THINKING THEY MIGHT KICK HIM -- THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE
Answer Good question. This issue usually can get complicated, but let me just consider the limits of your question.
One of the major issues that is unclear is just how close the other players (teammates and opponents) are to the player on the ground. You indicate that your teammates did not kick at the ball thinking that they may kick the downed player. This would suggest they were close.
However, the proximity of the players to the downed player is judged by the Referee. If in the opinion of the referee the players are not close enough to present a problem or danger to the downed player, then play should be allowed to continue.
If the players are close enough, then play should be stopped as a dangerous situation has been created. An Indirect Free Kick to your team would be awarded in that case.
Since play was allowed to continue so that the downed player was able to kick the ball into the goal, one of two things happened:
1) the referee felt there was no danger to the player and allowed play to continue, or
2) the referee made a bad mistake in not calling the foul.
Without seeing the situation, it is impossible for me to say if the referee was correct in his/her decision.
Hope you still had fun in the match and hope your season goes well.
