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From Jurassic Referee: "Sample verbiage out of 2.8.1: Thus, while officials do have the authority to penalize a team whose spectators interfere with the proper conduct of the game, this must be used with extreme caution and discretion. While the authority is there, the official must rarely use it, because experience has shown that calling hasty technical fouls on the crowd rarely solves the problem. This may require the removal of a team follower(s). This can be done without charging the supporters' team with a technical foul. The advised procedure is for the official to to notify game management as to which follower(s) must be removed from the site. If the official has positive knowledge as to which supporter(s) threw the items , the official should instruct game management to have the supporter(s) removed from the site. As in the previous case, this can be done without charging the supporter(s) team with a technical foul."
Everytime I read this citation, I think about the remote possibility that a fan of Team A might "pretend" to be a fan of Team B and do something unsportsmanlike to get some fouls shots for his "real" team and get an indirect technical foul on the "real" opposing coach. I know that it's a remote possibility, but it has guided me throughout my 26 years of officiating to occassionally ask to have a spectator removed, or at least spoken to by the site supervisor, but to never call a technical foul on the spectator.
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