Question Number: 20732

Kicks From The Penalty mark 1/13/2009

RE: Adult

Tony of Sydney, Australia asks...

My question is on the procedures for Kicks from the penalty mark to determine a winner of a match.

As the goal keeper is the only player that can be substituted from the bench in the KFTPM (assuming the maximum number of subs have not been used) to get a good penalty taker on the field who is not eligible and/or an injured player off, all you have to do is:
Keeper A (best and currently in goal) changes places with an eligible player on the field who becomes Keeper B.
Keeper B (who previously was a player at the end of the game) is carrying an injury and tells the ref he can not continue and has to go off before a kick is taken.
Replace Keeper B with keeper C from bench as not all subs have been used up.
Then change keeper C back with the first and best keeper " goalkeeper A.
Now you have an ace penalty kicker on the field who was not eligible because he was not on the field at the end of the match and your best keeper back in goal and your injured player (real or otherwise) off the field!

This seems very much within the laws IF the Ref is obliged to allow as many substitutions/changes as the team wants/needs before the next kick.

My question then is: is this the case?

If the answer is yes then even though it is clear one team is not playing within the spirit of the laws - they are within the laws and as a result no action (during or after the game) is able to be taken against them.

You can just imagine how the other team and coach would be behaving during all these changes at such a crucial time in such a crucial match. The ref that allows this would need police protection for just applying the law!

Look forward to your comments.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

The Law is crystal clear on this. if the keeper is injured, he may be replaced by a substitute from the bench if one remains. But that's not what you have proposed. The Laws say a goalkeeper who is injured while kicks are proceeding may be replaced. That means the goalkeeper must be injured while he is playing as a goalkeeper. What you propose is taking an already injured player and putting him in goal. He's not the goalkeeper until he is ready to take over the duties of the goalkeeper which is to defend against a shot. He also must become injured WHILE he is the goalkeeper. If he tells the referee he cannot do that before a shot is taken, then, sorry, but he's not going to play goalkeeper and he sure as hell isn't going to be allowed to be substituted for. If he does take over as goalkeeper his team has a real problem. What coach would want an injured player to have a shot taken against him? And, he still must be 'injured' while playing goalkeeper. He now must become injured. Only a blind and stupid referee would not notice an obvious faked injury at this point. The only way to get away with what you propose is for an injured field player be able to hide his injury from everyone then fake an injury while in goal participating as the keeper. Again, why would a coach put an injured player in goal?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Bloody devious! ;o)
As long as the switched keeper gets to stop at least 1 shot I think you could pretend to be hurt and even if we doubted your claim the new substitute keeper comes in and AGAIN stops one shot then a switch back to the original keeper is going to work .

However, if this convoluted scheme was hatched to get around the laws it is in my opinion an unsporting gesture to circumvent the laws in this manner.

A simple switch between the keeper and the outfield player.
OK!
Fine no problems.

Then we are to allow that switched keeper to be substituted for an injury that was already there?
NOT OK!
Very doubtful unless we actually see him slip and break an arm or do something to BE injured after the request

Now the sub enters and our original keeper switches back again before the opposition gets to shoot?
NOT OK!
Smells fishy to me!

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

You can try to work around some loopholes, but remember that if you try to toy with the laws, you might find yourself on the end of some refereeing trouble, as not every ref is exactly 100% proficient at this tie-breaking procedure.