This happened during a hs varsity match this past spring. It was an extremly windy day and team A was awarded a corner kick. It just so happens that the corner flags were the "spring on the base" variety. Well, the wind would gust and the flag would bend down over the ball each time the player made her approach to kick the ball. Naturaly she would stop and try it again. Finally I instructed the ball person to stay out of play and hold the flag until the kick was taken. Of course the coach of team B complained that I was giving team A an unfair advantage. "In my opinion" I explained, "if the girl had attempted the kick without the outside assistance she most certainly would have injured herself". I also proceeded to explain to both coaches that if the situation occured again(in this game) we would handle it in a like manner. At halftime the hometeam found the conventional style flag and we had no further incident. Needless to say our assignor did not agree with my decision (I'm not new to the game by any means)but I have seen no rule disallowing such assistance for safety sake. I know the flag cannot be moved or taken out, but what harm was done by keeping it out of harms way. Any thoughts?
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