Into The Book - Episode 11 - August, 2023
2023 Summer CRO Points of Emphasis
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.
Into The Book - Episode 11
Video 1 - Offside Involvement - Interfering with an opponent
Snapshot moment
When deciding if an attacker commits an offside offense we should know that they commit one of three types of offside offenses.
Being involved in play - playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a teammate
Interfering with an Opponent (OIO) - Preventing an opponent from playing, blocking their vision, challenging an opponent for the ball, clearly attempting to play a ball close to an opponent or making an obvious action that impacts on an opponent.
Gaining and Advantage - Rebounded or been deflected off the goalpost, crossbar, match official or an opponent, been deliberately saved by any opponent
Video 1 - Explanation
We start with a corner kick played from the left side. First thing that the AR needs to do before the corner kick is taken is recognize that the last defending is not on the post. Once the ball is kicked AR will need to quickly move to the last defender.
When the kick is taken the blue attacker steps toward the goal inside the Goal Area. When the attacker does this the Red Defenders step up making the blue attacker in an Offside Position. The moment Blue Attack strikes the ball his teammate is approximately 3-4 yards away from the Goal Keeper in his line of site.
Because the blue attacker is directly in front of the Goal Keeper we an assume that he is blocking the Goal Keeper’s Vision. However, this decision is not only made by AR. The AR may not know exactly if the Defender is blocking the vision of the Goal Keeper. When the ball goes in the goal the AR should stand at the corner flag. This signals to the referee that there may be something wrong with the goal and they need to walk over and talk to confirm if the player was Interfering with the Goal Keepers Vision.
Final Decision - Offside by Interfering with an Opponent (Blocking Goal Keepers Vision)
What Makes a fair shoulder challenge and what makes an unfair challenge?
We are going to show two videos of shoulder challenges. After watching each clip make a decision on a fair shoulder challenge or unfair shoulder challenge. Then read over out explanations of what makes a fair or unfair challenge. Watch the clips again and see if you notice anything new or does your decision change?
Video 1 - Fair Shoulder Challenge
Watching this clip you see grey going into the attack with the ball. The yellow defender, after a long touch by grey, catches up to the grey attacker. The ball is within playing distance of both players, they are both moving at high speed in the direction of the ball. As they are running towards the ball they both come into the same space, challenge each other and allow is able to come out on the better end of the challenge from both players.
Yellow Defender was always looking at the ball. Did not extend an arm to push or step into the space of the Grey attacker. Because of all these considerations Yellow made a FAIR CHALLENGE with the Grey Attacker.
Video 2 - UnFair Shoulder Challenge / Foul
The key to this challenge is watching what each player is doing with their eyes. Where is the Grey attacker looking? Watching the ball the entire time it is in the air, while being mindful of where the yellow attacker is.
What is the Yellow Attacker looking at? The Grey Defender. He sees the ball played then moves his head to look at the defender.
Once the attacker has located the defender what does he do next? He takes a few steps then steps into the defenders body with a shoulder charge. Is it a lot of contact? No, not at all. Is it enough contact to unfairly make the defender lose balance and no longer be able to defender or win the ball? Absolutely. Even though this is a small amount of contact, keep it simple, call the foul coming out.
FOLLOW UP TO VIDEO TWO - Should the AR call this foul?
Teamwork makes the dream work but know when to insert yourself into the space that a referee can make a decision. If the game expects the referee to make the decision ARs keep your flag down.
Pick your head up, make eye contact with the referee and ask yourself “Is the referee in position to make this call and do they see the possible foul? If the answer is yes, then let the referee make the call. If the referee is caught on a counter attack and is behind play the AR can help.