Gelephu Referee was initially started
on 1st November, 2014 with few interested referees from the region
with basic knowledge of the “Laws of The Game”, initiated by Mr. Ugyen Dorji to
develop the football and referring in the region and Bhutan as a whole.
The Gelephu Referee department was
officially formed and recognized by the Bhutan National Referee in the year
2014. We have our own department set in the region with regional Technical
Director, Mr. Ugyen Dorji and Referee Head, Mr. Pema Norbu.
Now, The Gelephu Referee
Department has 24 members, of which 1 FIFA Referee, 9 National Referees, and
other are regional referees. By 2019 we targeted to have all remaining 14
referees as to be registered as National Referees, and few in FIFA Panel.
Interfering with an opponent, what is that exactly? The Polish refereeing team made a great call you can learn from in their game between Dynamo Kyiv and Slavia Prague. At first glance the goal seems to count, but the refereeing team was making sure to get clear what happened. Who were involved? Who was in offside position?
Below you can see the video of the match situation. But before you watch, try to write down the criteria for offside. Focus on interfering with an opponent. Below the video you’ll get an explanation, but it’s a good exercise to share your own thoughts first.
The match situation
You’ll notice the assistant referee moving away from the goal-line, because that is the signal a ball has crossed the line. But in the meantime referee Daniel Stefański keeps talking with assistant referee Dawid Igor Golis.
If you check the clip again, you’ll notice two players in an offside position. The goal scorer is not. The question now is: what is the role of the players in offside position? Do you know what the Laws of the Game say about this?
LOTG on interfering with an opponent
The Laws of the Game are clear on this matter. A player who is in offside position after a pass from a team-mate “is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by interfering with an opponent”. And this are the criteria for it:
preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or
challenging an opponent for the ball or
clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent or
making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball
The latter is crucial, because that is what blue attacker 19 does. At the moment of the pass he is in offside position. When he walks away from the goal-line he runs into a defender, who has no longer the chance to play the ball.
So a great call by the refereeing team. Biggest lesson: always communicate as refereeing team.
The wait and see (WAS) technique is well-known in football. Assistant referees should not raise their flag too soon, but wait how play continues. Late but CORRECT decision.....
The first example comes from France in the 2018-2019 season.
What is your first thought when seeing a situation like this below? Offside probably, but nothing is what it seems?
Because when you have a clip of the full situation, you’ll notice that the player does not get involved in ACTIVE play. The player who passes the ball is the person who touches the ball again.
Biggest lesson here: have the courage to wait. The next situations are bit more tricky. See below.
Wait and see by Marciniak
The second example is from a 2017-2018 Champions League game. The referee is Szymon Marciniak. But I’d like to mention his assistant referee Tomasz Listkiewicz. let us analyse the situation below the video clip.
How important waiting is
The situation as it happened. Manchester City takes a corner kick and the ball does not get away. A Feyenoord defender blocks a shot from outside the box, but it’s not sufficient. There is a second shot on goal. As you can see, at the moment of the pass there is an attacker in offside position.
Feyenoord goalie Jones saves this second shot and the striker in offside position is not yet active in play. The Laws of the Game say the following about this. A player is interfering with an opponent by:
gaining an advantage by playing the ball or interfering with an opponent when it has (1) rebounded or been deflected off the goalpost, crossbar, match official or an opponent or (2) been deliberately saved by any opponent
That is what happens here if the player in offside position gains the advantage. But is that the fact here?
Wait and see technique in LOTG
The Laws of the Game (LOTG) also mention the fact assistant referees need to see how play develops. The rulebook says: “The AR must use the “wait and see technique” to allow play to continue and not raise the flag when the team against which an offence has been committed will benefit from the advantage; it is therefore very important for the AR to make eye contact with the referee.”
And that is exactly what happens here. Although the player is in offside position, he is not active in play and does not interfere with an opponent. The assistant referee waits until someone touches the ball and that is an attacker who is not in offside position at the moment of the shot on goal.
So correct goal.
Great teamwork by the match officials and good use of the wait and see technique. I’d love to hear how they communicate in situations like this, because that makes it even more interesting. It gives us an even better idea how these calls are made.
Below another example.
Situation in The Netherlands
The following situation is in The Netherlands, but it’s slightly different. You’ll see that striker Van Wolfswinkel is in offside position at the moment of the pass and he runs towards the ball. What would you decide in this situation? (start at 1m56s)
At the moment of the pass Van Wolfswinkel is clearly in offside position. But remember: being in an offside position is not a foul.
Interfering with play or an opponent
And then something interesting happens. Van Wolfswinkel (red circle in pic below) runs towards the ball, but does not touch it. And that is the crucial detail to make the correct decision, because that’s important to determine if someone is interfering with play or an opponent.
The player does not touch the ball, therefore he is not interfering with play. The LOTG mention that interfering with play means you’re “playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate.”
Players interfere with an opponent by:
preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or
challenging an opponent for the ball or
clearly attempting to play a ball which is close to him when this action impacts on an opponent or
making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball
Van Wolfswinkel is running towards the ball, but that does not meet the criteria above. His actions don’t have an impact on the opponent.
But he is the player who scores. What is in the LOTG about gaining advantage?
Gaining an advantage
I want to tell you something about gaining an advantage. But we forget one important thing. Is the other player in offside position? In the video you can see lines on the pitch. I’ve marked it purple below and you see thesecondlast defender’s shoe is closer the goal-line.
Gaining an advantage only applies when the ball rebounds from an opponent, crosbar,goalpost or match official. Or when a defender deliberately saves the ball. That’s not the case here. As a result, there is a new situation at the moment the right winger receives the ball. When the right winger passes the ball back to Van Wolfswinkel, he is behind the ball. Correct goal and great wait and see technique there.
Can you score a goal from a throw-in? That was the question this weekend.
Goalkeeper was not alert when his team-mate throw him the ball. But did he touch it? And what if: how do you restart play as referee?
A great video example to learn from in this case study.
LOTG: can’t score a goal from a throw-in
The Laws of the Game are very clear on this. “A goal cannot be scored directly from a throw-in”. Do you know the correct restarts when it happens? Think about this, you’ll get the answers below.
But first the reaction of the goalkeeper on the German Sky channel. “I was very surprised myself”, he admits. Zieler didn’t really take notice of what really happened, because he didn’t see this coming. “Unfortunately, I touched the ball slightly, otherwise the goal would not have counted anyway.”
Despite this error, all went well for his team VfB Stuttgart. His team won with 2-1.
Restart if nobody touches the ball
The correct answers for the restart are if nobody touches the ball after it has been thrown:
if the ball enters the opponents’ goal – a goal kick is awarded
if the ball enters the thrower’s goal – a corner kick is awarded
