Did you know that there had been a change to the Laws of the Game this season? I would be very surprised if you did. Even very few referees realise it.
Many years ago I led a campaign to get referees informed of law changes before the season began. Sounds reasonable doesn’t it, but we only used to be told some weeks
after we had started refereeing.
I remember for instance when they introduced the four-step rule of goalkeepers, (since superseded by the six-second rule); we only knew what we read in the papers. With all due respect to journalists, they sometimes get things mixed up. I was running the line at a preliminary round of the FA Cup which of course takes place in August, and the referee dropped a clanger because he didn’t understand the new law.
Eventually the battle was won and each year all referees received a copy from the FA of a FIFA leaflet entitled, ‘Information on the amendments to the Laws of the Game and Instructions of the International FA Board’ before the season started. The changes are agreed in March so it shouldn’t be too difficult to do.
This year, however, locally at any rate, we haven’t received any such leaflet. Perhaps they expect all referees now to look it up on the internet, which is what I did, but I also heard about it at the National Referees' Conference in July. To be honest, the particular change that I am referring to, does not affect many people, certainly not players. It is only applicable at grounds which have technical areas and seating in the dug-outs.
The reason that spectators at those grounds will not have noticed any difference is that it is only regularising something that happened anyway. I also ought to point out that this change is not strictly a law although it appears in the Laws of the Game. It is what is known as an International Board Decision. But as it comes from the International FA Board which sets the laws, it has all the authority of the laws themselves.
This ruling previously said ‘Only one person at a time is authorised to convey tactical instructions tactical instructions from the technical area and must return to his seat after giving these instructions’. I’m sure everyone will have seen coaches/managers who stand up in the area for virtually the whole of the match whether shouting instructions or not. Now they are legally entitled to do so. Note however it is still only one person at a time.
Sometimes you see as many as four people jumping up shouting instructions, which I’m sure is totally confusing to players. Also they are only entitled to give tactical instructions to their players; they are not entitled to shout criticisms at the referee or his assistants.
I felt sorry for Wally Downes when he was fined after an altercation with Neil Warnock, then manager of Sheffield United, who was standing in the technical area and lashing out with his foot in an imaginary kick. Downes thought he was encouraging the Sheffield team to kick their Reading opponents but Warnock’s excuse was that he was having a go at the referee for not penalising a Reading player who he considered to have kicked a Sheffield player. Downes was quite rightly fined but the FA let Warnock off scot free, despite the fact that he was demonstrating criticism of the referee.
This International Board Decision also says that coaches must behave in a reasonable manner. For example, was
Arsène Wenger behaving responsibly when he started charging about and kicking water bottles as a protest, when Arsenal’s last minute equaliser against Manchester United was ruled out by the assistant referee’s flag? Of course behaving reasonably is something that goes for all football matches, whether or not there is a technical area and dug-out.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2009