in austria's national team-league final today the following happened: men's singles. Player A from team X touches the net. at least the umpire decides that he did that and therefore calls fault and gives the point to the other player. as a result of that a colleague of player A (let's call him player B from team X), who might have been coaching player A from behind the court (i'm not sure, since i was not there personally) gets really angry, because he is not d'accord with the umpire's call. the player attacks the umpire by hitting a t-shirt on the umpire. what should the umpire do? issue a black card to Player B? issue a black card to Player A?
3.2 If a Coach / Team Official 3.2.5 in any way abuses, intimidates or distracts a Tournament Official, Technical Official, another Coach / Team Official or an opposing player (2.6); the Umpire will give a verbal warning to the offending Coach / Team Official. 3.3 If the same offence as listed in 3.2 is committed again or any offence as listed in 3.1 is committed, the Umpire will call the Referee to the court. The Referee may remove the Coach / Team Official from the playing area. 3.4 In the case of flagrant breaches of this Code of Conduct or on physical contact (2.8), the Umpire will call the Referee to the court. The Referee will remove the offending Coach / Team Official from the arena floor and may have the Coach / Team Official removed from the arena for the remainder of the event or part thereof. 3.5 In case of action by the Referee as stated in 3.4 above, the place of such coach / team official shall not be substituted by any other coach / team official during the match. That should say all.
let's suppose this would have happened: "The Referee may remove the Coach / Team Official from the playing area" IF the "removed coach / team official" would have been a player, who later still had to play in men's doubles, would he have been allowed to play the match afterwards?
rule 3.4 Logically, it would be that match. However, if the manner of the offence meant that physical harm is possible, then this changes a lot of things. The tournament referee should be placing a priority on the safety of players and people assisting in the tournament. Therefore, perceived violent conduct should make that person disqualified from that tournament for the protection of other people. The referee has a lot of discretion.
The umpire will raise his hand and call over the referee and explain to the referee what happened. The referee will most likely remove the coach from that match, and there cannot be a substitute coach to take his spot. And like it says, the referee may bar the coach from the arena and not allow him to return.
