An old friend of mine and leader of the jazz band I used to play in many moons ago, phoned me last Sunday morning. He had travelled to Wigan last Saturday along with other die-hard Reading supporters and he had a query from the game.
It seems that Reading’s Nicky Shorey took a throw-in well inside the Wigan half, throwing the ball at the back of team mate Steven Hunt. The ball rebounded off Hunt’s back and Shorey crossed it into the Wigan penalty area. However, referee Martin Atkinson stopped the game, gave a free kick to Wigan and showed Shorey a yellow card, presumably for unsporting behaviour.
I find this very interesting, because as I have mentioned before, in the back of this
year's LOAF (Laws of Association Football) there is a whole new section, which is longer than the Laws themselves, entitled ‘Additional Instructions for Referees, Assistant Referees and Fourth Officials’. It contains a whole lot of rulings or interpretations, some of which have appeared previously in what were called ‘FIFA Memorandums’.
The problem with these is that they were published once and then never heard of again. In other words, those referees who were officiating at the time knew about them but anyone taking up the whistle at a later time is unlikely to be aware of them. Let me give an example. Law One - The Field of Play, lays down all the markings which are compulsory, plus one optional one (ten yards from the corner arc). Nowhere, however, does it specifically point out that no other markings are allowed. We were nevertheless advised some years ago that marking by goalkeepers, you know the sort of thing, scraping with the sole of the boot, a short line on the edge of the goal area lining up with the position of the goal posts, was not permitted and goalkeepers doing so, should be cautioned.
This was something that new referees would not have seen, that is until this year when it was included in these Additional Instructions. The FA obviously thinks this is some sort of problem, as it is now a question in the new referees’ examination.
The additional instructions also include a number of decisions that I have never seen before. For instance it says referees are not permitted to wear jewellery. In the Laws it is only for players that jewellery is forbidden. I have no problem with this but I feel that these new decisions should be more widely publicised rather than appearing suddenly and here’s the reason why.
One of the other decisions I have never seen before, is very similar to the incident at Wigan. It says, ‘If a player whilst correctly taking a throw-in, intentionally throws the ball at an opponent in order to play the ball a second time but not in a casual or reckless manner, nor with excessive force, the referee shall allow play to continue.’ It seems to me that if you are permitted to throw the ball at an opponent it must also be acceptable to throw it against a team mate. This would suggest that either Shorey threw the ball with excessive force, which I’m told was not done, or Martin Atkinson has not read these new instructions.
He’s not the only one. Graham Poll, who has a weekly column in a national newspaper was recently asked the question, ‘What would happen if a referee fails to raise his arm to indicate an indirect free kick and the ball goes directly into the goal’ His answer was that the game would restart with a goal kick. However, these never-seen-before instructions say the free kick must be retaken. He had hundreds of letters and e-mails from referees up and down the country putting him right and he quickly apologised.
Nicky Shorey, it seems to me, knew more than the referee.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2008