Red card during suspension of play

[WiisardNic]

Asking this to just sort of gauge opinion on how well this was managed. Unfortunately this is all anecdotal info from a family member who asked my opinion on this (being the trained referee in the family) and.. I don't know. Something seems fishy.

• Cup semi-final match, White team vs Blue team, White team is up 2-0 with about 20 minutes to play in the match.
• White GK rushes out of the penalty area towards the sideline to clear a ball, with attacking Blue player chasing down from opposite direction.
• Collision occurs where Blue attacker stays down, referee blows whistle for the FK. Blue player stays down clutching leg, referee allows personnel on the field to tend to injured player. Suspected at the time to have a broken leg. Physios/parents informed referee that ambulance has been called. Blue player wishes to try walk it off but is told to stay put.
• 20 minutes pass, with the ambulance no-showing, parents of the Blue team carry the injured player to a car to take to hospital/etc (apparently the player only sprained the ankle, which is good to hear it wasn't anything worse).
• During this 20 minutes, the referee has spoken to his Senior AR, Volunteer AR (parent of a team playing at an adjacent field / club not directly involved in this match), and the offending White GK (saying to the players/coaches listening on at the sideline - allegedly of course, since this is anecdotal - that he is just talking to him, and he is not in trouble). Then goes on to speak to coaches/parents on the sideline/technical area of both clubs.
• Once the injured player was taken from the field of play, the referee then, despite the following;
  • no further games on the field afterward,
  • 2pm on a Saturday afternoon (no weather/light issues),
  • competition regulations allowing the referee to add lost time as seen fit,
• Sent the goalkeeper of White off, and abandoned the game.

Competition regulations don't speak on how to proceed with the result after the match is abandoned (but I believe association guidelines do - and either way, not really a referee's problem), but the main thing that doesn't seem right to me, is the sending off of the player 20 minutes after the incident, allowing possibility of having parents/coaches influence the decision.

Ironically, this team has had something similar happen in a 2 day competition earlier in the year, where two outfield players collided (White team again, and an Orange team), player from Orange broke his leg, and once removed from field of play after about 30 minutes, despite not calling a foul and awarding a throw-in, had spoken to competition organisers before abandoning the game, and sent the offending White player off.

EDIT: Adding information provided that I forgot to add.
The referee, in sending off the White goalkeeper, spoke of the “intent” of the challenge, which goes on the belief that the player has been sent off for SFP, so I don’t think there is much allowance for the club to appeal any suspension, except for possibly suggesting that the referee has allowed those outside of the match officials influence the decision to send the player off.

 

[OnlyUseMeWhistle]

Does seem weird to send the player off so long after but I can see why player treatment of a child (?) came first.

Abandoning the game is the weirder call for me, unless one or both teams seemed unable to continue due to the effect of the injury (again I’m thinking child welfare here). I’ve never abandoned for an injury yet but it’s got to be a high bar for me.

 

[Josh the referee]

If this is youth football which it sounds like it is, players safety is paramount and comes over anything else.

Abandoning the game for me is a no-brainer if an ambulance has had to he called.

I remember watching a youth game a little while back and I believe it was a parent referee. Goalkeeper gets taken out by a studs up challenge and has clear stud marks on their thigh. But according to the parent in the middle, the player used their knees .

Long story short, an ambulance was called and the game abandoned as I would've done tbh.

 

[WiisardNic]

Thanks guys:

My understanding is that the game wasn’t abandoned until after the player was taken from the field of play, and even then, no ambulance was actually called, just taken away in parents car.

I probably would have abandoned the game straight away with a serious injury and had to wait for an ambulance, knowing the area.
But based off the information given to me, the ambulance never turned up, and the injury wasn’t a serious one (from when I played in this association, the matches were never abandoned until that point).

The main thing that baffles me is the long wait to issue a sanction, especially given the high probability to allow spectators and coaching staff to influence the referee’s decision to do so.