I often think that it is fitting that the Sports Editor puts my column above the list of leading goalscorers in the local leagues. I believe that I hold the
goalscoring record for referees in the town - with a total of one.
It happened many years ago when I was refereeing at Berks County Sports at Sonning. Play was taking place in the right hand side of the pitch near to the corner flag. I was in the middle of the field just outside the penalty area trying to keep a close eye on what was going on. The attacking player with the ball decided to kick it all the way back to a team mate near the centre circle. I ran sideways to the left hand side of the field to get out of his way and to be better positioned if the ball came into the penalty area.
However, the player concerned decided to have a long range shot at goal. It went somewhat astray and would probably have gone well wide of the left hand side of the goal, that is if it hadn't hit me on the shoulder as I scampered to get into position. The goalkeeper had come to his right hand goal post in anticipation and was still there when the ball rebounded off my shoulder into the top left hand corner of his net. As you can imagine, the defending players all protested but there was nothing I could do to relieve their dismay. I had to award a goal.
I was reminded of this last week when Manchester United scored with an 'assist' from the referee. United started to get frustrated with their lack of goals against Charlton and Andy Cole looked to have scorned another chance to score when his shot was cleared by Charlton defender Fish. Luckily for Cole, however, Fish's clearance hit Mark Halsey the referee and fell right back into his path. He made no mistake with his second chance.
All referees are taught when they start that, in the eyes of the laws, they are merely 'appurtenances' of the game in the same way as goalpost and crossbars and corner flag posts are. That is to say that if they are hit by the ball it is no different to the ball hitting the goalpost and rebounding into play. In the same way, if a defender hits the referee with the ball and it goes over the goal line it would be a corner.
The referee is torn between two objectives. One is to get as near to play as possible so that he is best positioned to make decisions, but obviously he doesn't want to get in the way. However hard he tries, there can be occasions such as the situations I've described, when he gets hit by the ball and it makes a difference to the play. I know that Mark Halsey obtains videos of all his performances in the Premiership to review whether or not his decisions were correct. I'm sure he will be looking at the Manchester United/Charlton tape to see if he could have been better placed.
There are certain occasions when referees particularly have to remember that they are a mere appurtenance of the game. This is at free kicks, corner kicks and throw-ins. If the ball hits the referee from any of these set play situations and rebounds direct to the player who had taken the kick or throw and he plays it again, then he will be penalised by an indirect free kick. The law says that players are not permitted to play the ball a second time until it has been touched by another player at free kicks, penalty kicks, corner kicks, goal kicks, kick offs and throw-ins. A referee does not count as a player, only an appurtenance.
Dick Sawdon Smith