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I was the center official in this match.
My reasoning for not calling the foul was, well, I guess you had to be there to see exactly as it happened. The TB player was making a run towards his spot, as it was a set play. This TB player was a much smaller player than the offending TW player. So, as the TB player made is run, it appeared his attempt was to go through the TW player instead of around him in order to take him out of the play. The TW player than "brushed" him aside with his arm around the TB player's head. All of which happened in a split second. My opinion at the time was that either one of those actions could have been called for a foul (TB for charging and TW for holding/pushing), but which one would you call? I decided neither since none of them affected any part of the play, and it was inside the penalty box of a 0-0 game and TB had several attempts at a goal off the corner kick.
Now, the reason for the caution was simply because the TW player had already been verbally warned by me for some of his other actions earlier in the match. This caution was an attempt to keep him and the rest of the players under a certain amount of control.
Regarding fouls in the penalty box, I am of the nature where normal fouls that happen outside of the box aren't necessarily called inside the box, especially during set plays such as corner kicks. There are bodies all over each other within the box so it is pretty hard to single out one specific foul. Most of the time, what I tend to do is focus on the goalkeeper (as I am one myself) if there is an offensive player by him. I will make sure that the keeper is not obstructed, but if he is fairly done so by the offensive player, I will watch to see if the keeper fouls him to get him out of the way, of which I will definitely call a penalty kick.
Another point is that cautionable offenses are not always fouls. I believe my example is a shady gray of that, since two people's actions offset one another. However, other cautionable offenses such as delay of game, disallowing 10 yards prior to a restart, coming onto the field when not summoned, etc., can be cautioned, but those tend to happen directly at the time of the action.
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