Into the Book - Episode 6 - Feb, 2023
Spring Season kick off and Spring 2023 Points of Emphasis!
Many leagues have already begun and more are ready to kick off in the coming weeks. We’re excited to kick off this season with our 6th edition of our blog INTO THE BOOK. We are going to continue this blog throughout the Spring 2023 season giving you a look into our thoughts on situations you will face as a referee during your matches. Our hope is that you will find some of these points helpful in your time this season.
This season we are going to focus on several areas that we feel have been important over the last season and will be Points of Emphasis going through this spring season. Our focus for referees this season at CRO are the following Areas: Coaching / Technical Area Behavior, Updated Offside Interpretation, and Foul Recognition and differentiation.
Coaching / Technical Area Behavior: We are two years into the Law changes that allow Referees to give formal misconduct to coaches. Warnings, Yellow Cards and Red Cards can all be given to coaches for behaviors listed in the Laws of the Game. We will give examples of some of these behaviors as well as ways in which referees can deal with those behaviors when they arise in your matches.
Updated Offside Interpretation: While the actual Law 11 has not changed a lot over the years the interpretation of Offside has evolved yet again. We will give more examples of how to judge deliberate vs deflection as an Assistant Referee and a Referee with the new interpretation.
Foul Recognition and differentiation: A big argument can be made that this is the most important part of our job as referees. We will spend some time talking about general foul recognition over the season, however, we will mainly focus on developing our ability to decide what type of foul occurred. Was it Careless or Reckless or did it involve excessive force? Could it be SPA or DOGSO? It is important for us a referees to not only be able to make a foul decision but also issue misconduct and protect players when necessary.
Coaching and Technical Area Behavior
Behaviors that lead to coach misconduct: Learn more about coach behavior here
Warning
Yellow Card
Red Card
Constantly complaining about the decisions of the Referee Crew.
What does that look like?
”Hey Referee, that was horrible” / “You’re a joke” / “You’re always wrong”
Phrases like these are not awful on their own and can at times be ignored. However, what you should not allow is a coach to constantly say these things after multiple decisions by you or your crew.
Aggressive or continued yelling at the referee.
Actions that can lead to a Yellow Card: Throwing or waving of Arms / Yelling / Kick or throwing items at the ground
Jumping up and down yelling for a foul
Loudly yelling at the referee and demanding a foul from inside the Technical Area
Throwing or Kicking an object onto the field
Leaving the Technical Area
Any physically Aggressive behavior toward a Player / Coach / Referee
Any cursing at Referee / Assistant Referee / 4th Official
What we want you to get out of this the most is that BAD BEHAVIOR from coaches CANNOT BE IGNORED.
Video 1 - Liverpool vs Manchester City
We’re going to give out our final answer to start this video. Then break it down as to why.
Correct Outcome - RED CARD: Deliberately leave the technical area to show dissent towards, or remonstrate with a match official.
**This could also be USING OFFENSIVE, INSULTING OR ABUSIVE LANGUAGE OR ACTIONS if the coach curses at you in any way.
Why is this a red card? As you watch the video you can clearly see that the coach RUNS out of the technical area waving his arms and yelling. If he stops here maybe it’s only a yellow card. However, he does not stop. He continues to run at the assistant referee and yells directly in his face. Getting this close to a referee or assistant referee to yell at them is TOTALY UNACCEPTABLE behavior for a coach and MUST BE DEALT WITH by the referee crew. The referee should stop play immediately and issue the Red Card.
What if the referee doesn’t see this? The assistant referee must put up their flag and bring the referee over and tell them you need a red card shown to the coach. Assistant Referee need to stand up for themselves and not allow this behavior. If you ignore this type of behavior then you will allow it to continue in the next game for the next crew of referees.
Sometimes referees are caught up in what is happening on the field. Assistant Referees and 4th officials should never assume a referee saw what happened in the bench area.
Foul Recognition and Differentiation
As Referees and Assistant Referees in a match we are tasked with enforcing the laws of the game. The most frequent way that we do this is through enforcing Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct. During the season this section will focus some on foul recognition and importance of recognizing simple fouls and calling them but we will have a large focus on what comes after we call the foul. Making decisions on Careless vs Reckless vs Serious Foul Play, as well as, Stopping a Promising Attacked (SPA) vs Denial of an Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity (DOGSO). As referees we have to be able to see challenges that require these types of misconduct and handle them appropriately.
Foul Recognition - Video #1
Picture 1 - Snapshot a referee must take before the foul happens
Picture 2 - Looking at all the criteria for SPA.
Picture 1 is the moment that a referee needs to take a mental snapshot of how many defenders and attackers are involved in the play. You must anticipate that a foul could happen. This way when you get to the moment the foul happens (PICTURE 2) you already have decided on the DEFENDERS, ATTACKERS AND DISTANCE TO GOAL, when the foul happens. It makes your decision a lot quicker and easier.
In this video you see black #12 controls a headed pass and pushes it past the white defender with her head. She has clearly beat the defender and moved past her. Once she does the the White Defender clearly grabs and holds Black #12’s jersey bringing her to the ground.
At this moment it is an easy foul decision. We also have to make a decision about SPA or DOGSO and if we need to give the Defender a Yellow Card, Red Card or No Card.
To make this decision we are going to break down the steps on how a referee should will make their decision of SPA / DOGSO or No Card.
There are 4 criteria that must be considered listed below. We will break down the answers to all of them and get to our answer.
Distance to goal - How far away from the goal is the play
Defenders - The number of defenders involved in the play
Direction of Play
Control - Does the attack maintain control of the ball or is it likely that they will control the ball.
Speed & Space - Does the attacker have space to move forwarded are they moving fast or not
Attackers - Does the player with the ball have teammates involved in the attack.
Distance to Goal: Foul happens about 6-7 yards past midfield so the play is far from goal. This meets a criteria for SPA because it has too far away from the goal for DOGSO
Defenders: We don’t count the Defender that commits the foul because she is already beat. There is one defender in the center close to mid field that would not be able to catch up by the time Black #12 got to the ball and continued her attacked. so that leaves one defender who is past the center circle and one at the bottom who MAYBE could get a position to defend this play. This leaves us with two defenders which meets a Yellow Card / SPA criteria. The more defenders the less likely it is SPA / DOGSO.
Control - Black #12 is clearly going to have time to control this ball even with it bouncing because there are not defenders around and she has purposefully placed the ball with her head in front of her in a manner she will be able to control.
Speed / Space / Attackers - We are going to combine the last points into one. She is moving at a good pace into space when she is fouled with a teammate in the middle of the field to support her.
All of this brings us to at least a 2 v 2 or a 2 v 1 attack for black which is stopped by the foul. It is a clear YELLOW CARD FOR SPA.
Foul Recognition - Video #2
In a match there are times that challenges rise to more than just a careless foul. As referees we must be able to learn what types of Challenges rise to level of Yellow and Red Cards and which are just Careless Fouls. Below we have a video of a challenge as well as the considerations we use as referees to decide to a foul warrants any misconduct.
Video #2
In this clip Blue #10 receives a pass and turns up field. White defender #10 comes from a medium distance away with speed but slows down as he goes into the Challenge. He makes contact with medium - low force down the side of Blue #10’s lower left leg with the side of the shoe and glancing contact with the stud.
Using our considerations:
What part of the body was contacted - side of the lower leg - Yellow
Force - Low to Medium - Yellow
Mode of Contact - side of the boot (glancing studs) - Orange
Opportunity to Play the Ball - Medium, ball was close when the challenge started and a quick touch away from the challenge caused the defender to have less chance at playing not close to the challenge when it happens. Attacker is in control of the ball. - Yellow
Decision - Yellow Card - Unsporting Behaviors: Reckless Tackle
Challenge Considerations
Green = Careless / Yellow = Reckless (Cautions) / Red = Excessive Force (Send off)
NEW OFFSIDE INTERPRETATION
We are going to put a high focus on understanding the guidelines around deliberate play when it comes to Law 11 and Offside throughout this season. We will work though points that are important for the Assistant Referee as well as the Referee in making these decisions and how teamwork will be involved. We are going to start out by listing and the new guidelines and links to the videos from IFAB and their decisions on them.
IFAB Offside Videos Link —> https://www.theifab.com/news/law-11-offside-deliberate-play-guidelines-clarified/
What is a deliberate play? - ‘Deliberate play’ is when a player has control of the ball with the possibility of:
passing the ball to a team-mate; or
gaining possession of the ball; or
clearing the ball (e.g. by kicking or heading it).
If the pass, attempt to gain possession or clearance by the player in control of the ball is inaccurate or unsuccessful, this does not negate the fact that the player ‘deliberately played’ the ball.
FROM IFAB: The following criteria should be used, as appropriate, as indicators that a player was in control of the ball and, as a result, ‘deliberately played’ the ball:
The ball travelled from distance and the player had a clear view of it
The ball was not moving quickly
The direction of the ball was not unexpected
The player had time to coordinate their body movement, i.e. it was not a case of instinctive stretching or jumping, or a movement that achieved limited contact/control
A ball moving on the ground is easier to play than a ball in the air
Additional Points from CRO Director of Assistant Referees:
When the ball was played what was the likely hood the defender could control the ball. If the answer is no, result is a NOT DELIBERATE touch leading to offside.
Was there an unexpected action by either and attacker or teammate of the defender that caused them to change their body orientation? A close action that changes the defender would result in a NOT DELIBERATE touch leading to offside.
Did the defender have to stretch with either their foot or head to touch the ball? If yes, NOT DELIBERATE touch leading to offside.
Video clips illustrating the clarification of the ‘deliberate play’ guidelines, which does not constitute a Law change, can be found here: https://www.theifab.com/news/law-11-offside-deliberate-play-guidelines-clarified/
Thank you!
Best of luck in the Spring Season to everyone out there working hard! Just like players we will have highs and lows in the season but we can always work hard no matter what happens on the field.
Have fun and we look forward to seeing you all out on the field or hearing about your matches!
Sincerely,
CRO STAFF AND EXECUTIVE TEAM