They say you can learn something new everyday and that was certainly true for me after Reading's game with Queens Park Rangers.
I'm sure all Reading fans were sad to see the ignominious exit of their former favourite, Jamie Cureton, for attacking Reading captain, Steve Sidwell, near the end of the game. Spectators were puzzled as to the reason for his uncharacteristic action and only discovered afterwards, what had incensed Cureton.
As he was about to take a pass from a team mate, inside the Reading half, he heard a call behind him. Thinking it was another team mate, he let the ball go through to Sidwell, who was then able to break up the QPR attack. Sidwell admitted afterwards that he had shouted 'Jacks', which is apparently a secret code word amongst footballers for 'leave it'. This was a new one on me and other referees that I asked, so it seems it is not just my education that is lacking. The reason they use this word, according to Sidwell, is to prevent being punished for not giving a name when calling for the ball.
By one of those strange quirks in football, I hadn't had anyone calling to make an opponent leave the ball for years, but it happened to me just two weeks before the QPR match. The situation was similar to the Cureton/Sidwell incident, in that the ball was going to a player when an opponent called for the ball. The offender had the same idea as
Sidwell: if you call a name it isn't an offence, as he was at great pains to explain to me.
'My name is Smith,' he said, 'but I am always known as Smithy, and I was shouting 'Smithy's ball', which you may have thought I was saying 'leave it'. He obviously didn't know the secret code either. I told him that I didn't care whatever name he used. He was obviously calling to deceive his opponent into leaving the ball and that is an offence.
It just shows that players at all levels have the impression, that you must give a name when calling for the ball. And if you do, even if it is to an opponent, you won't be penalised. It is of course complete nonsense. Every referee I'm sure, has had players demanding they take action, because an opponent has called to a team mate for the ball, without giving a name. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, even if he says 'my ball' or 'leave it', providing it is clear to everyone who the player is calling to. It only becomes an offence when it is done to deceive an opponent into leaving the ball.
The player in my game, who was tricked, also reacted, but not in the violent manner of Jamie Cureton. His criticism strangely was aimed at me for awarding his team a free kick. He seemed to think I didn't have the authority to do that under the Laws of the Game. I wondered if he had been swotting them up, for it's true that nowhere will you find any mention of calling for the ball in any of the Laws, or what action a referee should take.
However, 'calling to deceive' is cheating, despite what
Evening Post reporter, Nick Ive, might say, and it is covered by that catch-all clause 'unsporting behaviour'. The law doesn't spell out how you restart for unsporting behaviour but it says, 'an indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team, for any offence not mentioned in these laws, for which the game is stopped.
If the referee had been near enough to have heard the shout 'Jacks', Steve Sidwell would have learnt something new that day. Name or not, for
'calling to deceive' he would have received a yellow card, and it would have been a free kick to QPR.