You may recall last week we ran a piece titled “Blowing his Top” where we like many others at the Balcatta v Sorrento All Flags State reserve team game thought the referee had made a major gaffe. We, like most in the ground were wrong.
We have been advised that the Laws state that if a player commits an offence which the referee stops the game to caution or send off the player for something other than a foul (usually dissent, offensive language, or simulation), then the game is restarted with an indirect free kick from where the infringement occurred.
So the goalkeeper concerned lost his team a huge advantage.
However for any eagle-eyed readers out there the referee was wrong to award a direct free kick, and this was acknowledged.
Thank you for brining us up to speed on this rule.
