Date:         Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:16:41 -0500
Reply-To:     Discussion of Topics for Soccer Referees
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Sender:       Discussion of Topics for Soccer Referees
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From:         Jim Geissman <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: The solution is worse than the problem
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This comes from an error in LOTG the days before SFP was sub-divided 
into DOGSO and DOGSO-H, and before spitting was separated from VC.  
Somewhere, maybe Additional Instructions, there was a discussion 
of the difference between SFP and VC, which said, in part, that SFP 
is "defined as" using excessive force, etc., while challenging for the 
ball, whereas VC is not part of such a challenge.  This was clearly not 
a correct definition of SFP -- SFP also included denying a goal (or 
opportunity) by handling, and perhaps other things as well -- so IFAB 
should have said SFP was  *distinguished from* VC by those 
characteristics.  The "definition" has survived ever since, however.

On Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:27:45 -0600, George Parker 
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>The play I am thinking of was committed by John Terry of Chelsea against 
Manchester City in Sept of 2008. Terry was shown a Red Card when he pulled 
down Jo near the center circle on a breakaway. Referee Mark Halsey reported 
it as Serious Foul Play, under the meaning Jim McQ expressed. However, on 
appeal, the FA overturned the RC, ruling that SFP to means only "uses 
excessive force or brutality against an opponent when challenging for the 
ball when it is play"--not the not the broader sense of a serious foul 
against the spirit of the game.
>
>George Parker