The second round of the Dialog Champions League Super 8 saw a couple of very disturbing errors on the part of the referees in two of the week’s four matches.
While referring errors are universal, it still needs to be looked at in order to minimize effect on the game.
Controversial goal (Renown v Blue Star)
The match between Renown SC and Blue Star proved to be a close encounter even after Renown getting ahead to a 2-0 lead, but ultimately won 3-2.
The incident in question came in the 4th minute when Renown scored their first goal through Mohamed Rifnaz.
In the video Renown’s Onana Franklin is fouled near the touchline and referee K.P.Dias awards a free-kick. While Fazul Rahuman brings the ball back to the place where the kick should be taken he, with the referee watching passes the ball to Fazal Mohamed inside the box and Fazal’s cut-back allows Rifnaz to score with the Blue Star defense completely off-guard.
The free-kick taken is illegal as Law 13 of FIFA Rules state that in order to take a free-kick; the ball must be in a stationary position as well as from where the foul was committed, which in this case it clearly was not. (Source: thefa.com)
Procedure
For both direct and indirect free kicks, the ball must be stationary when the kick is taken and the kicker must not touch the ball again until it has touched another player.
It almost produced another goal in identical fashion in the second half which can be seen in the second part of the video. In that instance the error was made by Fazul Rahuman but this time the cut-back by Rifnaz was intercepted and cleared; else it would have been two illegal goals. To the referee’s benefit even though he was near the second incident he was unsighted as to how the free-kick was taken but allowed to play-on.
Blue Star SC would be bitter about this goal and the two back to back defeats after a good group stage but their play has much to be desired.
Missed red card? (Java Lane v Army)
The match was utterly dominated by Army winning 4-1 in a dull encounter with Java Lane failing in their plans and looking out of sorts.
The incident occurred in the second half with Army comfortably leading. Java Lane SC’s Chamara De Silva and Army substitute Dhamith Kumarasiri was tussling for the ball when De Silva with his elbows raised barges into Kumarasiri and hits the side of Kumarasiri’s head with the elbow where De Silva only received a yellow card from referee Dayan Sendanayake. The foul comes under ‘violent conduct’ in ‘Sending-off offences’ in rule 12 – fouls and misconduct in FIFA rules.
In the video it shows Kumarasiri’s severely hit and dazed, needing medical attention while the coaching staff was not at all pleased with the decision. Surprisingly assistant referee R.A.Tharanga who was close to the incident and had a better view than Sendanayake did not bring it oto the attention of the main referee.
Chamara De Silva’s intentions and actions may well not have been in malice but in another situation that elbow to the head could have been fatal.
ThePapare.com makes these representations purely for the benefit of the sport so that systems could be put in order to iron out such elementary blunders.
