Making Up for Bad Calls

The Game Room
1

Someone in some comment somewhere said Neymar should’ve intentionally missed the PK awarded in the BRA-CRO World Cup game since the PK was pretty clearly not the appropriate call. Now, I don’t expect that to happen, but it did lead me to wonder:

Are there cases in professional sports where a referee/umpire has made an incorrect call and the players or teams took it upon themselves to “correct” that result?

For instance, maybe at 40-40 in a tennis match, a serve that is clearly out is ruled to be an ace. The players could easily correct it by the serving player double-faulting, returning the game to 40-40.

I couldn’t think of any such instances.

(And to be clear, I’m not talking about the referees awarding “make-up calls” to atone for their earlier sins. I’m interested in the players taking it up themselves.)

2

Happens now and then. I’ve seen a few players decline penalties on behalf of their team when they went down without a foul.

3

There was this late last year. A goalie was trying to tie his shoes but the gloves were making it difficult, so an opposing player tied them for him. Then the referee called a foul on the keeper for taking too much time. The opposing player took the free kick and intentionally kicked it out of bounds.

4

Another example. (Youtube).

5

In fact, whole host of examples.

6

How about any non-soccer ones?

(But thanks for the examples!)

7

Non-soccer examples where it was prompted by a bad call:
Andy Roddick
Andrea Nelson, Sarah Lord, Devin McMahon, Kate Stuart, Sandra Martinez, Annie Dear, Alyssa Andrews and Lyndy Davis

Other examples of people who showed exceptional sportsmanship, but not necessitated by bad calls:
John Landy
Central Washington University Women’s Softball team
Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen

8

It used to happen in tennis quite a bit before they had the line technology when a player saw that a ref had clearly made a bad call, they’d let a serve go by them or double fault intentionally.

In cycling, if a rider in the lead pack gets in a wreck or gets a flat tire, the pack will allow him to catch up.

9

Not sure if anyone else is following this thread apart from me, but I see Novak Djokovic gave a point to Radek Stepanek at Wimbledon today after an incorrect out call was challenged by Stepanek and the umpire said the point should be replayed. Novak acknowledged that the out call had no bearing on his return (which was into the net) and so ceded the replayed point to Stepanek.

10

If the ref thinks the whistle interfered with play the correct call is a drop ball, not a free kick for the other team. I didn’t listen to the audio of that clip, but based on the player’s reaction it sure didn’t look like the player was trying to gain advantage or it was inadvertent.

11

There’s a link in the side bar from that video to probably the strangest example of this type of incident that I’ve seen.

It’s from a match in the Norwegian premier league in 2012, between Lillestrøm (playing in yellow) and Brann (playing in red).

Just to set the scene: Both teams are battling against relegation, and there’s a lot at stake.

It’s the second half, and Brann is leading 3-2. In the 49th minute, there’s an injury, and Lillestrøm kick the ball into touch to stop the play, so the injured player can be seen to.

In this kind of situation, fair play dictates that Brann should return the ball to Lillestrøm when play resumes. Brann’s Erik Mjelde tries to do that by playing the ball back to the Lillestrøm goalkeeper. Bizarrely, however, instead of being picked up by the goalie, the ball finds its way into the net.

Not wanting to capitalize on this, Brann agrees to give Lillestrøm a free goal to even things out, by not defending against their next attack.

However, in another weird twist, the Brann goalie Piotr Leciejewski doesn’t agree with the rest of the team’s display of sportsmanship (later commenting that he would “rather stay up than play nice”). As the sole player on his team, he frantically tries to stop the strikers from scoring, while his teammates stand by and watch.

The Lillestrøm strikers do manage to outwit him, though, and the goal is scored. I have no idea what would have happened if it had been saved. I suppose they would just have been allowed to keep trying until they bagged one.

Needless to say, Leciejewski caught some well-deserved flak in the papers the following day.

12

That sounds hilarious - hope I remember to watch this when I get home! Youtube blocked at work.

I was trying to think of examples from cricket and rugby, but now both sides make extensive use of video replays, it’s probably not necessary. Though you do still occasionally get a batsman “walking” in cricket (i.e. leaving the pitch without being given out by the umpire).