I have related before, the time I
temporarily suspended a match because a helicopter landed
alongside the pitch. I thought that I had had a unique
experience until I attended the first year of my Referee
Instructors' course with the FA. I was part of the audience
whilst another trainee was being assessed on his instructional
skills. 'Has anyone ever stopped a match because of a
helicopter landing close-by?' he asked. To his surprise, and
mine, three others also raised their hands.
I was reminded of this when
David Downs sent me a photograph from an Andover newspaper
showing a helicopter landed in the middle of a pitch. It was
in fact the air ambulance and play was delayed whilst
paramedics attended to an injured player in the penalty area.
Apparently he drifted in and out of consciousness so they
decided to airlift him to the John Radcliffe hospital.
There are two other points
of interest. The first is that Andover scored, whilst the
Cirencester player was lying in the penalty area, putting the
scorer onside. The contention was that as he was presumably
unconscious at that time, he shouldn't have counted as the
last but one defender and the player should have been given
offside.
Some years ago I used to
travel around referees' societies with a presentation called,
'Unusual but it Happened'. I illustrated a collection of
unusual incidents and asked the members to say what they would
have done had they been refereeing. One of these was where an
attacking player, lying unconscious in an offside position,
was hit by the ball kicked by a team mate. It bounced off him
to a colleague who scored. 'Offside' said the referee, but the
players demonstrated saying that how could he be interfering
when he was oblivious to what was going on. The referee in
both cases was right.
The offside law says a
player in an offside position should be penalised if 'he is
interfering with play or an opponent'. It doesn't say it has
to be a deliberate act. Although the attacker in the prone
position didn't know it, he did interfere with play. The
converse is true, the defender lying in the area was keeping
the scorer onside, whether he could do anything about it or
not.
The other question raised
at Andover, was why play was allowed to continue at all. If
the player was unconscious surely it was the result of a head
injury and play should have been stopped immediately. Of
course I wasn't at the game so I can't comment on the incident
but I experienced something similar myself last month. After a
skirmish in the penalty area the ball came to an attacker who
had a chance to score. A defender pointed to a team mate lying
down in the penalty area holding his head. 'Head injury,' he
screamed 'you must stop the game.' I allowed play to continue
but the attacker made a mess of his shot and I then blew my
whistle. 'If they had scored,' the volatile defender asked me,
'would you have allowed the goal.' 'Of course,' I replied.
'But you must stop for a head injury,' he said.
Normally referees will stop
play for obvious head injuries, because they can be the most
dangerous. These usually occurs when two players clash heads,
perhaps going to head the ball. In this instance there was no
head clash, and I could see no reason for denying the attacker
his chance to score. Referees are often faced with unusual and
difficult decisions. In my case I felt justified, because when
play stopped, the player got up, rubbed his head and claimed
someone had kicked him whilst he was on the floor. Not only
did he not need an ambulance of any kind, he even refused the
magic sponge before carrying on.
Dick Sawdon Smith