The Officials

Some common sense has to prevail with the “head injury” rule.

As others have stated, it’s just becoming an abused tactical piece of gameplay.

I wonder if an enforced 5 minute period off the field of play would prevent this from occurring? Or certainly restrict it from occurring. In order for a proper concussion test to take place, you’re not looking at much shorter than 5 minutes anyway.

The counter argument to this is of course, legitimately hurt players could try to mask an injury… However, I’d suggest everyone knows when a serious head injury has occurred.

A re-think is in serious need though, as it’ll only become more frequent.

Ref could have let play carry on for a few more seconds to give us a chance to score from a promising position.

Had we scored, the centre back would have jumped up and complained I've no doubt

It's difficult to fathom why so many head injuries occur when teams are desperately defending, but almost no head injuries occur when the team is attacking.

Funny that.

Something will have to be done though as just going down holding your head in moments of danger will become a ridiculous pantomime.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

It's difficult to fathom why so many head injuries occur when teams are desperately defending, but almost no head injuries occur when the team is attacking.

Funny that.

Something will have to be done though as just going down holding your head in moments of danger will become a ridiculous pantomime.

The issue is though, head injuries are such a cause of concern at the moment (and absolutely rightly so).

It’s going to be such a fine line for the FA to fathom how to move forward with this.

But as you say, if the current situation isn’t rectified - it will become a pantomime. As it did at stages yesterday.

Quoted from chaos33

The point, for me, isn’t that he stopped the game for a ‘head injury’. It’s that the officials consulted and then restarted play by giving the ball to the keeper?! The least we can expect is that the officials know the rules.

I get it, you'd like the ref to know the law prior to having to "make the decision" but ultimately they got it correct. This is a new law change this year and it is a little counterintuitive which is probably why he double checked? I also agree that due to this change it could be left open to all sorts of 'tactical' head injuries!

"Law 8
Section 2. Dropped ball

PROCEDURE

The ball is dropped for the defending team goalkeeper in their penalty area if, when play was stopped:
*  the ball was in the penalty area or
*  the last touch of the ball was in the penalty area

In all other cases, the referee drops the ball for one player of the team that last touched the ball at the position where it last touched a player, an outside agent or, as outlined in Law 9.1, a match official"

On a slightly related note one of the new law clarifications is that the keeper can use his hands in the penalty area now!

So according to that explanation he did indeed get it wrong since the last touch was outside the area and we clearly had possession

I suppose that’s always open to some interpretation though isn’t it as when we hear the whistle and when he ‘thinks’ he blew it are not necessarily one and the same? If he’s gone to blow before the ball makes it out of the area then that’s why he’s applied that rule. Maybe that’s what he was checking, when he blew the whistle as opposed to anything else?

Quoted from LN8Mariner

I suppose that’s always open to some interpretation though isn’t it as when we hear the whistle and when he ‘thinks’ he blew it are not necessarily one and the same? If he’s gone to blow before the ball makes it out of the area then that’s why he’s applied that rule. Maybe that’s what he was checking, when he blew the whistle as opposed to anything else?

I’m certain he blew after JMD had controlled it, outside of the box. In that case he got it completely wrong. Also did not add any time on for the incident. It seemed he couldn’t handle a tough game like that. I also noticed he seemed to acknowledge the shocker of a decision from the corner to one of our players just afterwards.

Quoted from Theimperialcoroner

I’m certain he blew after JMD had controlled it, outside of the box. In that case he got it completely wrong.

I appreciate that (and I am only playing devil's advocate here) but wouldn't the head injury itself be the incident, and hence the stoppage, regardless of what happens next? Going back to the original conversations, though, this rule does look open to abuse whenever the whistle is blown.

Quoted from LN8Mariner

I appreciate that (and I am only playing devil's advocate here) but wouldn't the head injury itself be the incident, and hence the stoppage, regardless of what happens next? Going back to the original conversations, though, this rule does look open to abuse whenever the whistle is blown.

No, it’s when the whistle is blown to stop play.