A&H

Changing a penalty decision based on players injury

G

Geoff Randall

New Member
Level 9 Referee
Hi guys just after a little reassurance (first post so go easy).



Yesterday first game of the season, ball played over the top but heading towards the left corner of the penalty area, big chase on between left winger and right sided centre half who is coming across to cover. Winger gets to the ball and hooks it up in the air, centre half is at this point rushing in with arms in the air like he is in a 2nd World War film about to surrender. Ball hits him and to me looks like it hit one of his arms, wingers screaming for handball so I point to the spot for a penalty. Uproar ensues, defender comes over holding his face poking his eye, water streaming from it but I cant be certain he hadn't inflicted the redness himself. So go with my original decision. After the game he comes up to me with the manager and I explain in future he should keep his hands down so as to leave officials in no doubt the ball has hit his head. By this time he is sporting a cracking black eye which indicates to me he was walloped in the face and not the eye. Any thoughts on how I dealt with this appreciated, should I have taken his watering eye into account and possibly reversed my decision.
 
The Referee Store
If in your opinion it has hit is arm then you are correct to give a penalty. NEVER change or even give a decision based on players reaction or injury's. If you start doing this then certain teams, who are very good at getting in the refs head, will start making your life difficult in an attempt to get decisions their way.

Unlikely scenario below but an example of why not do do it:

In your match you say the player has redness in his eye. How do you know he hadn't always had it but you hadn't noticed. You say he approached you after the game with a black eye. Could you see it developing over the game? Was he subbed off during the game? If he was then how do you know he didn't ask a teammate to punch him to give him a black eye or even gave himself one just to try and prove a point to you?

Unlikely scenario but it could happen and some teams will try strange things. This is why you should never go with players and go with what you have seen/your instinct.

Looks like you got it spot on so well done. Also sounds like you dealt with the aftermatch well so well done again
 
I agree completely with @LC, you can only ever give what you see. Once you reach a level you have NAR's, you might consider changing your mind based on their say-so, but that's pretty much the only reason I can think of. And well done on dealing with the response strongly.
 
Hi
Give what you see. Did you see the ball strike his arm or was it a guess based on his arm position. I had an appeal last weekend for handling and I saw that it hit the defenders face. It sounded like a slap of the ball on the arm and there were appeals for 'handball' but I was clear in my view and decision. I think that this skill gets developed with time to actually focus on the ball and what it hits.
Now going back a decision on the basis of evidence is not tenable. We are not in the detective business. Perhaps on a caution aka Mike Dean recently when he saw the players shin and the extent of the injury put away his yellow card and pulled the red card. That's okay or if you had an AR who says it hit his face then so be it. The decision gets changed. Other than that we live with the call and I suspect you were / are unsure it hit the arm hence your doubt.
Also it always agitates me when players and managers don't give up particularly after the game. What is any referee going to do after the game. Say tell you what you are right and I'm going to chalk off that goal!!
 
How do you know the ball didn't deflect off his arm onto his face? Or vice versa?
That's why you can't take into consideration the watery eye.
Heck for all you know the ball could have struck his arm and flung some dirt into his eye!
Were you certain it hit his arm though? Take the opponent appeals out of the equation - they'll appeal anything. It's meaningless.
DHB is a difficult one - due to problems with perspective, sometimes it can look like it hit a different part of the body to what it did. It may be possible you got it wrong, maybe you got it right. We've all thought a ball hit a part of the body it didn't.
 
As others have said give what you see not what you think might have happened.

To put a different spin on this, a player could get a leg broken by the most innocuous careless foul. The severity of the injury shouldn't, most of the time, affect the severity of the punishment.
 
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