A&H

Broken Corner Flag

T

The Don

New Member
Yet another of my incidents witnessed at a game for your deliberation.
During a stoppage in play in the second half, the Assistant on the far side drew the Referee's attention to the fact that a Corner Flagpost on the furtherst diagonal from him was not in place. It turned out that it had been broken.
The official Referee's Observer, close to me, jokingly said to the club official near him, "Abandon the match".
After some time, a home official eventually produced a new one, duly wrapped in cellophane and replaced the broken one. After a round of applause, the game carried on.
Question: Could a match be abandoned if a replacement Corner Flagpost could not be produced?
 
The Referee Store
Keeday said:
Could it? Yes. Should it? Depends on the level, the LOTG supplementary information for match officials states that a game should still start/continue if one or more corner flags are missing unless there are safety issues
Click to expand...
Is it still there. Last time I looked I couldn't find it. Memory serves me it was in the Spirit of game section...
Your answer is correct though. I think at the level the OP talks about the game could not continue.
 
At pro grounds with own facility, hopefully a replacement be found

rather than the game in the op though, whilst there might be a definitive ' abandon' if a flag is broken, would anybody REALLY abandon say a thrilling 3-3, boring 0-0, or better still, unfancied away team 0-3 up with five mins to go?

obv not the referees decision but you are really hoping the 0-3 stands and the game is not replayed.

Factoring in the time left might play no part in the laws or tournament rules but am not sure a league be too supportive ( even if technically correct) of a referee abandoning for this in all cases. Esp say with travelling, paid entry fans, fixture baclog etc, none of which are the referees responsibility.

spirit of the game, common sense, might prevail but on the flip side you could not fault a referee sticking to the laws
 
Play on.

While I understand why at a higher level it may seem unacceptable not to have all four corner flags, it’s easier to manage at that level without them given there are three (or four or more) sets of eyes on the field anyway.
 
Get on with it and report the facts afterwards to the competition. Certainly not going to risk player injury by having them stand around mid-match for someone to open the shed and root around.
 
JamesL said:
Is it still there. Last time I looked I couldn't find it. Memory serves me it was in the Spirit of game section...
Your answer is correct though. I think at the level the OP talks about the game could not continue.
Click to expand...
Still there, page 171 ...

the referee should allow a game to start/continue if:
• one or more corner flags are missing
• there is a minor inaccuracy with the markings on the field of play such as the corner area, centre circle etc.
• the goalposts/crossbar are not white

Although it does say before that "this is especially true for the lower levels of football". Realistically, at levels where it really matters there will always be spare corner flags lying around.
 
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