Question Number: 18978

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 5/4/2008

RE: competive Under 13

John Bauer of San Diego, California USA asks...

There is a direct free kick outside of the penalty area. While the wall is being set up, an attacker tries to back his way into the wall. The defender in the wall demonstrates to the referee that he is not initiating contact by raising his his hands up in the air. While his hands are raised the kick is taken and the ball strikes the defender's hand in the penalty area. What is the correct call? I say it should be a p.k. because the defender's arms were not in a natural playing position. If you use "the ball played the player's hand" ruling, then all of the players in the wall could raise their arms and it would be o.k. Right?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

John if you as referee are witnessing this then you as referee form the opinion which translates to your decision your match your reputation. You are only partially correct in that the hands are not allowed to be deliberately placed into positions which COULD impact the free kick unfairly as in over the head AWAY from the body. Yet you say the attacker was backing into the defender and the ONLY reason the defender raised his arms was in YOUR opinion to indicate no contact or he was not pushing? If that was your opinion then the arms are not placed their deliberately to stop the ball then you could judge no foul and in fact the backing in is a PUSH by the attacker, a foul once the ball is kicked and to some degree a form of misconduct prior to the kick. If a defender has withdrawn the ten yards and planted themselves in a position on the field then no attacker can push them to make room for themselves. The same holds true if an attacker is already at that distance and a defending wall is being set, it must accommodate his presence. While I might prefer the jostles tousle between opposing players sees limited use in a defending wall we must deal with the unfair contact points in a no nonsense manner with quick intervention
I had a similar incident in which the attacker in by the wall nudged the defender who lost his balance and flailed the arms wide into the path of the ball. Since I saw this as a non deliberate attempt to handle the ball there is no foul present despite the arm and ball coming into contact as I was of the opinion it was not why those arms were there. The arms are attached to the body and a deliberate movement into the path of the ball is not the same as a deliberate move to regain balance or to highlight the fact in your scenario a possibility the defender was being fouled
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

John, instead of allowing the ceremonial restart to be taken you should intervene again and put an end to what is going on in front of you. You correctly identify a problem but refuse to deal with it. That makes the problem yours, not the players because you have allowed what they are doing! Because you have allowed what they are doing before the ball is kicked and moved what happens after that cannot mysteriously chance into foul play. You get the big bucks to deal with little annoyances such as this. Step up and earn your match fee, deal with the misconduct straight away then having to deal with a possible handling infraction of even a DOGSO disappears.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

AT the moment you saw the defender with arms raised signalling he was not engaging in foul play, you should have blown your whistle. Since you didn't the defender now has his arms in a perfectly natural position. The position to tell you he wasn't going to push his opponent. Since his arms are in actuality in a natural position, this is not a case of deliberately handling the ball so no PK and no DOGSO.

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

This is not handling the ball deliberatly. The player was trying to show you that he was not fouling and the ball accidently struck him in the hand. Play on!

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

The correct call is a whistle to stop the kick before it is taken and deal with the behavior of the attacker backing into the wall. One would be inclined to assume the wall was being set by the referee, since the attacking team had no need to wait for a wall to form unless it was a ceremonial free kick asked for by the attackers, thus a whistle would be required to restart play. If the kick was taken before the whistle, it should be redone, and some strong words spoken to the attack. If the referee is not setting the wall for the kick, and an attacker is backing into the wall of defenders, and a defender has raised his arms to show he is not initiating the contact, and the ball hits his upraised arms, that is not the same as a wall of defenders raising their arms that you posit. How can one argue for punishment of the supposed misdeed of another if it is your misdeed that causes the problem?

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 19011