I am sure that many of you, especially if you are a Royal's supporter, also read the weekly column on Fridays in the
Evening Post, called 'Ask Downs'. David Downs, the official historian of Reading FC, answers readers questions on the Royal's past. However, last week he was asked a question which he couldn't answer, so he passed it to me.
To be fair to David, it was not a question on the history of the football club but instead on the Laws of the Game. It referred back to that rumble in the tunnel at the Arsenal v Manchester United match, when exchanges were made between the two skippers involving some offensive language. The question that it prompted was,
'could a player be sent off in the tunnel before a match and, if a player can be sent off before the game starts, can he be replaced?' A great question and the answer is a little complicated but also very intriguing.
The first thing to understand is the difference between the referee's jurisdiction and the referee's power to punish players. A referee's jurisdiction starts the moment he arrives at the ground and ends when he leaves it. So if he is refereeing at Highbury, it starts when he walks through the front entrance. If it is at Prospect Park it starts when he enters the park.
Very occasionally I have had players approach me with that certain glint in their eye as I make my way back to the car. I calmly warm them to watch what they say, as they are still under my jurisdiction until I drive through the gates. To be honest I have never had a problem but if they stepped out of line, I could treat it as misconduct and report it to the appropriate authority, that is to say their County Football Association and action could be taken against them.
The referee's power to punish players, in other words to award free kicks against them, to caution or send them off, is a little different. That starts when he walks out on to the field of play. I don’t mean when he goes to inspect the pitch but when he crosses the touch line to get the game started. It lasts until he steps off the field of play after blowing the final whistle and it does include anything that happens at half time, even in the tunnel if there is one. So if a player misbehaved in the tunnel at half time, the referee could send him off and his team would be down to ten players.
But to answer the question, 'can a player be sent off in the tunnel before the
game?', the answer is no. If the referee considered the behaviour warranted it, he would report it as misconduct but he couldn’t prevent the player taking part in the game.
However, once the referee has led them out on to the field, if a player then commits a sending off offence before the kick off has been taken, he would be sent off without actually taking part in the game.
To the second part of the question, 'can a player
sent off before kick off be replaced, the answer is - yes, but only be a named substitute. This would mean his team would be one substitute short. For example, if the competition rules allow five to be nominated, they would be left with a choice of only four from which three can play. If it was a substitute who committed a sending off offence during that time, he could also be sent off but couldn't be replaced. His team would have one less substitute.
I suppose the question I ought to ask David Downs to get him delving into his records, is, has it ever happened to a Reading player?
Dick
Sawdon Smith