What kind of incident are you checking?
Every question in this scenario
The Misconduct investigation scenario asks 12 questions and can reach 36 decisions. A walk answers only the ones its own answers lead to. This is the whole set, for reference and for revision.
1What kind of incident are you checking?
Law 12 cautions a player for eight things and sends one off for nine. Only some of them start with a challenge for the ball.
Answers: A challenge or contact while going for the ball · Force or contact away from the ball · A player went down or claimed a foul · What a player said or did towards a match official · A restart was delayed · A player entered or left the field without permission · Repeated offences, none of them worth a card on its own · A goal or a clear chance was denied · A goal celebration · Something else Law 12 names as a caution
2Was there any contact from an opponent?
Contact, and its absence, are evidence about whether the player was trying to deceive rather than the test itself.
Answers: Yes · No
3Did the player exaggerate the contact, or its effect, to invent an offence?
Answering no sends the question back to whether the contact was careless, reckless or used excessive force, which is the fouls tree.
Answers: Yes · No
4Did the player claim a foul, by appealing for one or by going down as though fouled?
With no contact there is nothing to have exaggerated, so the deception has to be in the claim.
Answers: Yes · No
5Was the language or the action offensive, insulting or abusive?
Dissent is disagreement, however forcefully expressed. This is the line above it.
Answers: Yes · No
6Did the player show dissent towards a match official, by word or by action?
A gesture can be dissent. A player asking a question is not: an approach is a matter for the referee's discretion.
Answers: Yes · No
7Which restart was delayed, and by whom?
For a throw-in, a goal kick, the goalkeeper's eight seconds and a substitution, the team loses something first and the caution is held back.
Answers: A throw-in, by the team taking it · A goal kick, by the team taking it · The goalkeeper held on to the ball · A player being substituted was slow to leave · The ball was kicked away, or taken from the wrong place
8Did they then interfere with play and deny a goal or an obvious chance?
All three limbs have to be met. A player who came on with permission is outside this branch and has committed no offence at all.
Answers: Yes · No
9What did the celebration involve?
Leaving the field to celebrate is not itself cautionable, though players should return as soon as possible.
Answers: Leaving the field of play · Removing the shirt, or covering the head with it · Covering the head or face with a mask or similar item · Climbing a perimeter fence, or approaching the spectators · Acting in a provocative, derisory or inflammatory way · Nothing but an excessive delay · Something else
10Which of these was it?
Failing to respect the required distance is its own cautionable offence rather than one of these. The last option is for unsporting conduct this list does not name.
Answers: A deliberate trick to pass to the goalkeeper with the head · Verbally distracting an opponent during play or at a restart · Handling the ball, to stop an attack or to try to score · Changing places with the goalkeeper during play · Playing the ball while leaving the field with permission · Making unauthorised marks on the field of play · Showing a lack of respect for the game · Failing to respect the required distance at a restart · The referee review area, the TV signal, or the video room · Something else, and it was unsporting
11What was the handling for?
Both are cautioned as unsporting behaviour, and the first carries an exception the second does not.
Answers: To interfere with or stop a promising attack · In an attempt to score a goal
12Which of these was it?
Law 12 gives the review process three offences of its own, two of them cautions and one a sending-off, and the same offences apply to a substitute or substituted player.
Answers: A player entered the referee review area (RRA) · A player excessively used the review (TV screen) signal · A player entered the video operation room (VOR)
Every decision it can reach
Each one is where a walk ends, with the reasoning it prints. The clause behind a decision is cited on the decision itself, which you reach by walking to it.
This one is decided by the foul ladder
Where the incident is a challenge for the ball, the restart and the card come from one reading. Law 12 makes each of the seven physical offences an offence only where it is careless, reckless or uses excessive force, and attaches the sanction to those same three words: careless brings no card, reckless must be cautioned, excessive force must be sent off. That ladder is what comes next, along with the DOGSO and promising-attack questions that sit alongside it.
Continues in the foul sanction scenario.
Violent conduct is decided by the force used, not by the challenge
Violent conduct is using or attempting to use excessive force or brutality against an opponent when not challenging for the ball, or against anyone else, whether or not contact is made. A player who deliberately strikes someone on the head or face with the hand or arm when not challenging for the ball is guilty of it unless the force used was negligible. Biting or spitting at someone is its own sending-off offence. What comes next is whether it was a bite, a spit or a hand or arm to the head or face, then for anything else how it was made, which is where the force is judged, then where it happened, which decides the restart.
Continues in the foul sanction scenario.
Caution: unsporting behaviour, simulation
Attempting to deceive the referee, for example by feigning injury or pretending to have been fouled, is listed among the cautions for unsporting behaviour. The Glossary puts the same thing generally: an action which creates a wrong or false impression that something has occurred when it has not, committed to gain an unfair advantage. Where the deception was an exaggerated reaction to real contact, Ruleside reads this caution as sitting beside the free kick for that contact rather than replacing it. The restart is an indirect free kick where the offence occurred. Simulation is not one of Law 12's direct free kick offences, and it is not on its indirect list by name either; it reaches the indirect free kick through the catch-all for any other offence for which play is stopped to caution a player.
No misconduct: nothing to caution
The offence is attempting to deceive the referee, so a player who falls without contact and makes no claim has committed nothing. Losing your footing is not simulation, and a caution here would punish the fall rather than the deception the clause names.
Sending-off: offensive, insulting or abusive language or action
Using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or action(s) is one of the nine sending-off offences in Law 12, listed alongside serious foul play and violent conduct. It is a sending-off on its own, without needing a previous caution, and the red card communicates the sending-off.
Caution: dissent by word or action
Dissent by word or action is one of the eight cautionable offences Law 12 lists, separate from unsporting behaviour and from persistent offences. It needs no repetition: a single act of dissent is cautionable. If this is the player's second caution in the same match, the second caution is itself a sending-off offence.
No misconduct: neither dissent nor abuse
Law 3 gives even the captain no special status or privileges. A player who asks something without disputing the decision has committed neither dissent by word or action nor anything on the sending-off list.
Throw-in awarded to the opposing team
Where a player is unfairly delaying the taking of a throw-in for their team, the referee whistles and signals the start of a five-second countdown, counting the last five seconds down visually with a raised hand, and awards the throw-in to the opposing team if it is not taken. The restart is the sanction. A caution is held back for a player who then excessively delays the restart on top of that, which is what Law 12's cross-reference to Laws 3, 15 and 16 provides for.
Corner kick awarded to the opposing team
Where a player is unfairly delaying the taking of a goal kick for their team, the referee whistles and starts the same five-second visual countdown, and a corner kick is awarded to the opposing team if it is not taken. Law 17 lists that among the things a corner is awarded for, in its own words. Again the restart is the sanction, and the caution is reserved for a player who goes on to excessively delay the restart.
The goalkeeper's eight seconds is its own question
A corner kick is awarded where a goalkeeper, inside their own penalty area, controls the ball with the hands or arms for more than eight seconds before releasing it, and the Laws attach no caution to it. What counts as control, and when the referee starts the count, is what decides these cases, and both are asked directly next.
Continues in the goalkeeper offences scenario.
The substitution stands and the team is short until the first stoppage after a minute
Where the player being substituted has not left the field of play within the required ten seconds, and leaving was not made impossible by safety, security or injury, Law 3 applies its own sanction rather than reaching for a card, and the sanction is not a cancellation. The player being substituted must still leave the field of play, and is cautioned only if they excessively delay the restart beyond the ten seconds. The substitute may not yet enter. Play restarts. The substitution cannot be cancelled nor a different substitute used, so it is spent rather than reversed. And the substitute may enter only with the referee's permission during the first stoppage after one minute has elapsed following the restart, which is how long the team plays short.
Caution: delaying the restart of play
Two delaying offences are named in Law 12 itself rather than handed to another Law: kicking or carrying the ball away, or provoking a confrontation by deliberately touching the ball after the referee has stopped play, and taking a free kick from the wrong position to force a retake. Neither has a restart sanction attached to it, so the caution is the sanction. The same offence reaches a substitute or substituted player, who is cautioned for delaying the restart in their own right. And where the delay comes alongside something else, Law 12 says two separate cautionable offences should result in two cautions even when they happen in close proximity.
Sending-off: entered the field and denied a goal-scoring opportunity
A player, sent-off player, substitute or substituted player who enters the field of play without the required referee's permission and interferes with play or an opponent and denies the opposing team a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity is guilty of a sending-off offence. All three limbs are needed: the entry without permission, the interference, and the opportunity denied.
Caution: entering, re-entering or deliberately leaving the field
Entering, re-entering or deliberately leaving the field of play without the referee's permission is a cautionable offence. It runs in both directions, so a player who walks off without permission is caught by it as much as one who comes back on, and the deliberate qualifier attaches to leaving rather than to entering.
Caution: persistent offences
Persistent offences is a cautionable offence, and the clause defines it by refusing to define it: no specific number or pattern of offences constitutes persistent. So there is no count to reach and no requirement that the offences be against the same opponent or of the same kind, and nothing in it requires the fouls to be deliberate or tactical. Each offence can be careless and carry no card of its own. It is the repetition that is named.
DOGSO is decided on the foul ladder, and the card depends on where and how
Denying a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity is a sending-off offence, but Law 12 then takes it back in two places. Inside the offender's own penalty area, where a penalty kick is awarded and the offence was an attempt to play the ball or a challenge for the ball, it is a caution instead. And a non-deliberate handball that produces a penalty is a caution rather than a red. Four factors decide whether the chance was obvious in the first place: the distance to goal, the direction of play, the likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball, and the location and number of defenders and attackers. The walk asks how the challenge was made before any of that, because a challenge that endangered the opponent's safety or used excessive force is serious foul play and a sending-off on its own, whatever the chance was.
Continues in the foul sanction scenario.
Not a cautionable offence in itself
Leaving the field of play to celebrate a goal is not a cautionable offence, but players should return as soon as possible. So running to the corner flag, or a few metres beyond the touchline, is not a card on its own. What is cautioned is what the player does out there, and the four named offences reach a player who has left the field as readily as one who has not.
Caution, even if the goal is disallowed
A player must be cautioned, even if the goal is disallowed, for removing the shirt or covering the head with the shirt. Even if the goal is disallowed is the part people miss: an offside flag does not undo the caution, because the offence is the celebration rather than anything to do with the goal.
Caution, even if the goal is disallowed
A player must be cautioned, even if the goal is disallowed, for covering the head or face with a mask or other similar item. This is separate from the shirt offence and covers anything worn or held over the face, and like the shirt it survives the goal being ruled out.
Caution, even if the goal is disallowed
A player must be cautioned, even if the goal is disallowed, for climbing onto a perimeter fence and/or approaching the spectators in a manner which causes safety and/or security issues. Both and/or's are printed and both matter: either act reaches the offence on its own, so a player who climbs the fence without going near anybody is inside it, and either a safety problem or a security problem is enough.
Caution, even if the goal is disallowed
A player must be cautioned, even if the goal is disallowed, for acting in a provocative, derisory or inflammatory way. It is the same phrase Law 4 uses to decide whether a slogan is permissible.
Caution for delaying the restart
Players can celebrate when a goal is scored, but the celebration must not be excessive. A celebration that is merely long is none of the four named cautions, and Ruleside reads it as reaching the ordinary cautionable offence of delaying the restart of play. The time is not lost to the match either way: goal celebrations are one of the eight categories Law 7 requires the referee to allow for.
No offence: celebrating is allowed, and this is not one of the named four
Players may celebrate when a goal is scored, and Law 12 names the celebrations that must be cautioned rather than describing celebration in general: removing the shirt or covering the head with it, covering the head or face with a mask or similar item, climbing a perimeter fence, and acting in a provocative, derisory or inflammatory way. A celebration outside that list is not cautionable in itself, so lifting the shirt to the chin, kissing a badge, sliding on the knees or running to a corner flag are none of them. Two things still apply to it: the celebration must not be excessive, which is the delay question rather than the content, and leaving the field to celebrate is not itself cautionable although players should return as soon as possible.
Caution, and an indirect free kick: the deliberate trick
Initiating a deliberate trick for the ball to be passed to the goalkeeper with the head, chest, knee or similar, including from a free kick or a goal kick, to circumvent the Law, is cautioned as unsporting behaviour. The purpose limb is printed and is what separates this from an ordinary headed back-pass. It is the only one of these circumstances that Law 12 also prints in its indirect free kick list, so the restart follows from the same act, and the offence is complete on initiating the trick, whether or not the goalkeeper then touches the ball with the hands. The clause also names the other offender in the same sentence: the goalkeeper is cautioned if they were responsible for initiating the trick.
Caution: verbally distracting an opponent
Verbally distracting an opponent during play or at a restart is one of the circumstances Law 12 names for an unsporting behaviour caution. It reaches a restart as well as open play, so a shout as the ball is being thrown in is inside the rule rather than outside it.
Caution: handling to stop a promising attack, unless a penalty follows a non-deliberate handball
Handling the ball to interfere with or stop a promising attack is cautioned, and the clause carries its own exception in the same sentence: not where the referee awards a penalty kick for a non-deliberate handball offence. So the same act inside the penalty area can produce a penalty and no card, which is the distinction that surprises people.
Caution: handling in an attempt to score
Handling the ball in an attempt to score a goal is cautioned whether or not the attempt is successful. The clause says so in its own parenthesis, so a handball that produces nothing is treated the same as one that produces a goal the referee then disallows.
Caution: changing places with the goalkeeper at the wrong moment
A player who changes places with the goalkeeper during play, or without the referee's permission, is cautioned for unsporting behaviour. The offence is the timing and the permission rather than the swap itself, which Law 3 allows during a stoppage with the referee informed.
Caution: playing the ball on the way off the field
A player given permission to leave the field of play who then plays the ball on the way off is cautioned. The permission covers leaving, not one more involvement while doing it.
Caution: unauthorised marks on the field of play
Making unauthorised marks on the field of play is cautioned as unsporting behaviour, which is what a defender scratching a line at a free kick is doing. Law 1 prints the same offence and adds the timing: if the referee notices it being made during the match, the player is cautioned when the ball next goes out of play, so the caution waits for the next stoppage rather than stopping play for it. Unauthorised is doing the work, and Law 1 defines it in the same law: only the lines indicated in Law 1 are to be marked on the field of play, with other lines permitted on artificial surfaces provided they are a different colour and clearly distinguishable.
Caution: showing a lack of respect for the game
Showing a lack of respect for the game sits in Law 12's list of circumstances for an unsporting behaviour caution, and the Law prints no test for it at all. Ruleside reads it as the clause for an act that is plainly unacceptable and is not one of the named circumstances, and the tree cannot narrow it further than the Law does. The list it belongs to is introduced as circumstances 'including if a player', so it is open by construction rather than closed.
Caution: failing to respect the required distance
Failing to respect the required distance when play is restarted with a dropped ball, corner kick, free kick or throw-in is its own cautionable offence, listed beside unsporting behaviour rather than under it. All four restarts are named, so the free kick wall is one case of the rule rather than the whole of it.
Caution: entering the referee review area
Entering the referee review area is a cautionable offence in its own right, printed in Law 12's own list rather than left to unsporting behaviour, and it applies to a substitute or substituted player as well as to a player. The area belongs to the referee for the length of the review.
Caution: excessive use of the review signal
Excessively using the review, or TV screen, signal is cautioned. The word is excessively rather than any use at all, so the offence is the campaign for a review rather than one gesture, and it covers a substitute or substituted player too.
Sending-off: entering the video operation room
Entering the video operation room is in Law 12's list of offences for which a player, substitute or substituted player is sent off, alongside violent conduct and spitting rather than alongside the review area caution. A player sent off must then leave the vicinity of the field of play and the technical area.
Caution: unsporting behaviour
Unsporting behaviour is a cautionable offence in its own right, and the circumstances Law 12 prints under it are introduced as ones 'including if a player', so the list is open rather than closed. Conduct that is unsporting and is none of the named circumstances is still cautioned under the same offence, which is why a referee can caution for blocking an opponent's route back onto the field without finding a bullet for it. Showing a lack of respect for the game is not this route: that is itself one of the named circumstances.