| Case Study # | 15-2013 |
| Date | 13 Apr 2013 |
| Competition | Barclays Premier League |
| Fixture/Result | Arsenal 3 – 1 Norwich City |
| Referee/Badge | Mike Jones, Select Group |
| At Issue | During a corner kick, the Assistant Referee calls for a penalty for a foul in front of goal |
Relegation-threatened Norwich City were clinging to a 1-0 lead away at Arsenal in the 83rd minute. ย During a corner kick for Arsenal, a tussle in front of the Norwich goal saw Norwich forward Kei Kamara and Arsenal forward Oliver Giroud end up in a heap on the floor. ย Referee Mike Jones was content to let play continue, until he clearly got a buzz from the Assistant Referee, who immediately signaled for a penalty (using the unique-to-England mechanic of flag across chest).
At first, Referee Jones appears to be confused by the call. ย I’m guessing that he assumed there was an offside flag and so blew the whistle quickly. ย But as the decision became apparent, the Norwich City players – and especially the goalkeeper – approached the Assistant Referee, engaging in very verbal and obvious dissent. ย To his credit, Referee Jones cautioned the goalkeeper (which had little effect, it must be pointed out), but still looked as if he wasn’t quite sure what was happening.
There are a couple of different talking points to cover here.
First, is there a foul? ย My own opinion is that, had I seen what the Assistant Referee saw, I would feel compelled to communicate this to the referee. ย It is quite possible that Referee Jones was screened by Kamara himself and couldn’t see the egregious shirt pull executed by the Norwich forward-turned-defender.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, is the mechanics of how this situation unfolded for the referee crew. ย We can only speculate about what Jones’ pre-grame instructions were to his crew, but I think it would be safe to say that, given Jones’ reaction, it didn’t include having the Assistant Referee call for a penalty in this scenario.
What did the AR say to Jones over the radio? ย Couldn’t he have said “Mike, I have a serious shirt pull on yellow in front. ย Do you want it?” ย It doesn’t appear that this happened.
Given that Jones appeared to blow quickly after receiving the beep from the AR, one wonders if he would’ve done well to have a look first. ย I strongly suspect that Jones thinks the AR is flagging for offside.
Finally, given that the AR did call for the penalty, and Jones did blow the whistle, could he have done a better job in recovering and selling the call? ย Would it have been a better choice to jog over to the AR (Jones walked) and have a quick chat, so that both referee and AR were on the same page? ย There’s always the get out of the inadvertent whistle, and while that’s certainly ugly for a professional match, it might have been better sold.
In The Opinion Of The Referee 
8 responses to “Case Study: AR2 Calls For A Penalty. From A Corner.”
Great piece as usual.
Few technicalites, obviously he wouldn’t have thought he was flagging for offside as that’s impossible from a corner.
Secondly, it’s not Mike Jones’ first season in the PL, he’s had a few.
Keep up the great work!
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On Mike Jones 1st season, clearly I heard wrong the other day. Or the commentator was wrong. Still, don’t remember him even from last season. Anyway, thanks for the catch.
On the offside flag possibility, the ball didn’t go straight to Kamara and Giroud. It pinged around a bit before reaching them. I should have made that clear in the write up.
Thanks for the nice comments, much appreciated.
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I don’t really see any problems with the referees here. I think you may be reading more into the facial expression than there is.
To me – the referee goes to his AR both to quell the intrusion by players, and to let “the stadium” know this was not a penalty he saw, but wanted to confirm that it was clearly one.
I can’t see anyone believing it could be an Offside flag (but I haven’t seen the video).
And, Mike Jones has been doing Premier League matches since, I believe, 2008. He’s been there at least 3 or 4 years.
Keep up the great website. I love checking your stuff out, and hearing comments from other referees.
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Good stuff starts at 0:47. Pretty obvious, not sure how CR would miss the takedown.
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Great piece ITOOTR! Definitely liked the part about the GK gamesmanship. I’m sure I would have given him a second yellow following his reaction and that stunt.
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I get the impression that kind of stuff goes on all the time at the top level. I can still recall the Mexico goalkeeper blowing a kiss to Landon Donovan before a penalty in a USA v MEX match. (Like Arteta from the Arsenal match, Donovan buried the spot kick).
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Very interesting to see Jones’s body language at final whistle. When Norwich players approach the officials to complain further about the penalty decision Jones leaves AR to take the flack, rather than protecting and supporting his colleague. This suggests he was not happy with AR intervention and I imagine he had some choice words in the changing room.
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Officials are there to work as a team, so long as the right decision is given that is all that matters. The assistant got the decision right.
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