Drop ball: QPR v Birmingham

[Nix]

Would love some clarification on the LOTG. In the match yesterday, one of the Birmingham players went down with an injury during a QPR attack just outside the Birmingham area. Ref stops game, fair enough, he'd done the same in the first half for a QPR injury. Anyway when the player got up, the ref walked about forty yards with the ball up the pitch, chucked the ball at the QPR player in their own half and allowed the Birmingham player to immediately challenge for it.

I've never seen this happen before and I wondered if there's some rule that I'd missed that refs have discretion to move a drop ball in this way. Not looking for an argument about this from any QPR or Birmingham fans, just wanted to check on the rules for future reference or any feedback of potential reasoning for it.

 

[Gabriel]

I think it would depend on the situation. The ball should be dropped where play was stopped, but if the ref thought that was 40 yards further up from where it actually was, I'd be surprised. The Birmingham player shouldn't have been allowed to challenge for the ball until the QPR player touched it, as drop balls are uncontested now.

 

[JamesL]

I think it would depend on the situation. The ball should be dropped where play was stopped, but if the ref thought that was 40 yards further up from where it actually was, I'd be surprised. The Birmingham player shouldn't have been allowed to challenge for the ball until the QPR player touched it, as drop balls are uncontested now.

The ball is dropped where it was last touched, where it touches an outside agent, or where it struck a match official (and the other conditions are met.)
Exceptions are ball in PA, or last touched in PA in which case it is dropped to the goalkeeper.

 

[bester]

I think it would depend on the situation. The ball should be dropped where play was stopped, but if the ref thought that was 40 yards further up from where it actually was, I'd be surprised. The Birmingham player shouldn't have been allowed to challenge for the ball until the QPR player touched it, as drop balls are uncontested now.

The ball is in play when it touches the ground.

 

[Nix]

Thanks everyone. Well it seems like a mystery, only explicable to the referee concerned!

 

[Gabriel]

The ball is dropped where it was last touched, where it touches an outside agent, or where it struck a match official (and the other conditions are met.)
Exceptions are ball in PA, or last touched in PA in which case it is dropped to the goalkeeper.

Yes, I just tried to simplify it a bit but often where it was last touched is where it was stopped. This is the correct technical version.

 

[Kes]

Yes, I just tried to simplify it a bit but often where it was last touched is where it was stopped. This is the correct technical version.

Maybe so for you but in my experience, the last touch is rarely where the ball/play is when the whistle is blown.
And yes, the dropped ball nowadays is "uncontested" in so far as the ref is simply returning possession to the team which last touched it but if the opponent is 4 metres away when the ball touches the ground then it's play on, challenge or not ...

 

[RustyRef]

Thanks everyone. Well it seems like a mystery, only explicable to the referee concerned!

When you say it was a QPR attack, had any of their attacking players actually touched the ball? I've seen this argument before where a defender plays it long and the referee stops play with the ball in an attacking area due to an injury, but the dropped ball has to be back from where the pass was made as no attackers had touched the ball.

In terms of the Birmingham player being allowed to immediately challenge for the ball, that is absolutely correct as long as they were the required 4m distance away when it was dropped.

 

[Nix]

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If you are interested in watching the video, it happens around 1 hour 3 minutes and 20 seconds where the Birmingham player goes down injured. QPR win a header in the Birmingham half and it doesn't leave the Birmingham half before the ref blows his whistle. The drop ball isn't actually shown but it definitely took place in the QPR half. As I say, I don't want to hang the ref out to dry, I was just a bit confused by it and couldn't understand the thought process unless I have missed something in the LOTG.