A&H

Common sense or Letter of the law?

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Adge

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Level 6 Referee
Evening all! Had a game earlier today u18's very one sided affair! Away team was winning 18-0 (yes really) with 30 seconds to go. Away striker takes a shot that is heading into the goal and defender sticks out his arm and I award the penalty. The most blatant red card you will ever see, but I chose not to send him off. Now 2 things here, 1) sorry if I have let you all down but this seemed the common sense approach, 2) there was not a bad tackle/dissent or any incidents during the game, infact my mum could have reffed it.
I did inform the coach and player that if the game was any way competitive ie 2-1 that the player would have been dismissed.
Thoughts please?
 
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Adge said:
Evening all! Had a game earlier today u18's very one sided affair! Away team was winning 18-0 (yes really) with 30 seconds to go. Away striker takes a shot that is heading into the goal and defender sticks out his arm and I award the penalty. The most blatant red card you will ever see, but I chose not to send him off. Now 2 things here, 1) sorry if I have let you all down but this seemed the common sense approach, 2) there was not a bad tackle/dissent or any incidents during the game, infact my mum could have reffed it.
I did inform the coach and player that if the game was any way competitive ie 2-1 that the player would have been dismissed.
Thoughts please?
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Sorry but I think you've bottled it there. You should have sent him off.

Red and penalty 24/7 365, for the next thousand years.

Don't become last weeks' ref.
 
Maybe not, but at the risk of sounding like Padfoot the LOTG do not say they are not to be applied on a sliding scale dependent of the score or any other factor.
 
You've signed your death warrant with the comment to the manager. A simple "Wasn't sure if it was going in" if there's any wriggle-room (ie not stood on the goal-line) gets you away with it. What you said to him could come back to haunt you if you have them again and something similar happens.

Learn from it, plain and simple. ;)
 
I hate to say it, but that card needs to come out if you said that. From the OP, it sounds like it was a 100% going to be a red. Score doesn't matter when it comes to the law. Alas, as to why the teams continued to play after even 9-0 is beyond me:eek:
 
Yep, I got it wrong and should have shown the red. It's been playing on my mind since which is why I posted it on here. Sorry again to let you down no matter what the score. Last weeks ref unfortunately springs to mind.
 
As people said he should of gone as we always say it does not matter if it 1st or 94th minute or what the score was he should of walked
 
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Adge said:
Yep, I got it wrong and should have shown the red. It's been playing on my mind since which is why I posted it on here. Sorry again to let you down no matter what the score. Last weeks ref unfortunately springs to mind.
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I've done it too mate. Juniors, forget what age but old enough for cards. Slow bouncing ball heading towards goal, no keeper. Defender sprinting across the goal line to stop it. At the last moment as he's about to reach it, ball takes a random bounce back to the direction he's running from. Hits his arm stopping the goal - arm was out from his body but in a perfectly natural position given he was sprinting and had no chance to react. Correct decision was no foul, I awarded a PK but no red card - knew it was wrong when I did it.

Sometimes with DOGSO you can really stretch your claim that there was no OGSO. Take the attacker running towards goal but at angling away a bit. At Angle A (say, running directly for the centre of goal) he has a clear, unarguable OGSO. At Angle B you would argue there's no OGSO, he's angling too far away from goal (this precise angle is a matter of judgement). There's a whole range between those 2 angles. Sometimes you can stretch/abuse the claim of 'not running towards goal' depending on the match. Similar if it's from some distance out and you're stretching the claim of 'the other defender would have reached him before within shooting range'. Same with DHB, although the 'subjective' angle is probably narrower...truth be told, it's probably more like 'there's a point where you could claim with a straight face you didn't think it was going in when you know it was'.....is it correct to even do that? Well, I probably have a fair prediction on who's going to sit on which side of the fence here :p

But if it's in that 'inarguable' point - as it was in yours - you're stuck with the red card. It really sucks having to do that in these games.
 
As Tealeaf said, all you needed to say to anyone who questioned it was "Wasn't sure if it was going in ;)" - even if it wasn't blatantly obvious it was going in, you're covering your own back and not admitting you're ignoring the LotG.
 
Just always think to yourself ''what would I do if the score was 0-0. Key match decisions shouldn't be judged on the score, but the seriousness of the match incident.
 
@Adge, it looks like I'm the only one who thinks differently on this thread.

I'd've done exactly the same, there's no way you'll see me sending someone off for DOGSO with 30 seconds to go and the score at 18-0.

Definitely a time to apply common sense for the good of the game. No one is going to want or expect a red in this situation.

I've been in this scenario a few times before and I've never sent the player off in similar circumstances.
 
HullRef said:
@Adge, it looks like I'm the only one who thinks differently on this thread.

I'd've done exactly the same, there's no way you'll see me sending someone off for DOGSO with 30 seconds to go and the score at 18-0.

Definitely a time to apply common sense for the good of the game. No one is going to want or expect a red in this situation.

I've been in this scenario a few times before and I've never sent the player off in similar circumstances.
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Ouch. That's definitely a case of last weeks' ref.

What if he plays in a game he should be banned for and has a crucial part in another teams (or his own) promotion/relegation/cup win?

Not our job to decide if it's a kick in the nads after a punch in the face. It's our job to deliver the decision from LOTG.
 
Don't you think it might have a bigger impact on your match control, and at the higher level, your club marks?

I think it's one where we as referees can do ourselves a favour by not causing unnecessary problems.

Anyone who has ever been on the end of an 18-0 defeat will know how horrible a defeat can be.

I think now is the perfect time to quote my favourite and arguably the world's best and most popular referee:

“I’m not like some refs who could quote you the number of the law, with or without the brackets," he once said. “Of course I know them. But knowing the laws too well and technically applying those laws, well you’ll never have a game of rugby. You’ve got to have a bit of empathy as well.”
 
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