Reading’s Welsh International striker, Simon Church, who was excluded from Reading’s game against Swansea, said that he had learnt a lesson from the two yellow cards he received at Bristol City that earned him the one-match ban.
There are, I think, a couple of learning points that evolved from his experience. The first caution and yellow card was an unusual one and illustrates a little-understood part of the laws. Royals’ supporters will know that Church was shown the first yellow card as a substitute before he had even been called on to play. He allegedly made some injudicious remark to the assistant referee whilst warming up alongside the touchline, after Bristol City had been awarded a penalty.
It may come as a surprise to some people, as it obviously did to Simon Church, that the referee’s powers to punish, extend off the field as well as on it. What the law actually says is, ‘all substitutes are subject to the authority of the referee, whether called upon to play or not’. Also incidentally, this authority extends to substituted players, in other words, a player who has been substituted and is sitting on the bench, or in local football, standing on the touchline. He can’t think that he is now released from the referee’s powers to punish and start shouting untoward comments at the referee or his assistant.
On top of coming on to the field of play without the referee’s permission, there are three reasons for which an off-the-field substitute or substituted player can be cautioned and shown the yellow card. Firstly, there is unsporting behaviour, which can cover a whole range of misdemeanours.
And then, as Simon Church discovered, there is dissent, in other words, protesting verbally or non-verbally (making gestures) against a referee’s decision. Perhaps Church felt that as
a (so far) unused substitute he was free to give the assistant referee the benefit of his views about the referee’s decision but of course he now knows better.
The final cautionable offence for substitutes and substituted players is delaying the restart of play. This could involve, for instance, a substitute holding on to the ball when it has gone out of play to prevent or slow down the taking of a throw-in or corner or other free-kick.
There was an unusual incident last season, when a substitute warming up along the touchline, who was aware of Stoke City’s Rory Delap’s prodigious long throw, tried to prevent him taking one from the right position. He was no doubt worried that it would land in his team’s goal area, causing them difficulties as it had many other teams. It earned him a yellow card.
It is also worth players
remembering that this power granted to a referee to punish, that is to caution and send-off players, substitutes and substituted players, starts when the referee enters the field of play to commence the game and ends when he walks over the touch line at the end of the game. So if any of them feel that they would like to give vent to their feelings after he has blown the final whistle, they could still find themselves shown a yellow or red card even though the game has finished.
In fact a referee’s jurisdiction is longer than this. It starts before the game when he arrives at the ground and, after the game, lasts until he leaves the ground. It covers incidents outside the game, involving not just players but also club officials and spectators. He can’t issue yellow or red cards but must report any misbehaviour.
I said that there were two lessons from Simon Church’s sending off against Bristol City but I have run out of space and only covered one. I must therefore leave until next week the question of when the celebration of a goal becomes a cautionable offence
Dick Sawdon Smith
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