Question Number: 21757

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 8/8/2009

RE: Under 11

Michael of LIC, NY USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 21715

I dont understand why when a cautionable with a red card, misconduct happens away from the ball but inside the penalty area should be a penalty? The incident has nothing to do with the ball. The game should stop. The referee should show the red card to whomever deserves it, whoever kicked the other player and the game should start from where the ball is.
World cup some years ago - Dutch defense man Righchard spits at German Voeller inside the penalty area. Both got the red card from some reason. the game started with a goal kick. do you remember?

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

I don't know of the game you speak but since spitting at an opponent is a direct kick foul as well as a send off, the only way the game could have restarted with a goal kick is if the spitting happened while the ball was out of play and the goal kick was the proper restart.
The Laws Of The game are clear that the restart for any foul is from the spot of the foul (or in the case of spitting or throwing an object at an opponent, where the opponent was). Where the ball is has nothing to do with the restart for a foul or misconduct on the field of play. If the ball is at midfield and a player punches an opponent inside the player's penalty area, the restart is a penalty kick and the player is sent off for violent conduct. If an offense is committed off the field of play (hence, it cannot be a foul) and the ball is in play, then we restart with a dropped ball from where the ball was. If you look at Law 12 you will see that for every foul or infraction committed on the field of play by players against players while the ball is in play the restart is from where the offense occurred. If an offense is committed by a substitute or substituted player the restart is from where the ball was when play was stopped.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The restart for every foul is where the offense occurred. It has nothing to do with where the ball was, except that the ball has to be in play. Player A1 could be bringing the ball down the right sideline, when A2 gets tripped over on the left sideline. The restart is on the left, not the right.

It's the same with misconduct, again as long as the ball is in play. As Ref Contarino notes, we only restart at the location of the ball if the misconduct happened off the field or was committed by a non-player.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Having the restart where the offence occurred, not where the ball is, keeps things really simple. Otherwise, it simply adds something else that referees have discretion over that they'd have to make decisions on, which further complicates their job and would probably confuse and irritate players, and just give players and spectators another reason to yell at the referees.

Think about where it would become problematic if an 'off the ball' foul was penalised differently to an 'on the ball' foul, even if you're just talking about a different restart location. Say a player has the ball at his feet. He then knocks the ball 5 yards ahead to run past a player, and that player then trips him. On the ball or off the ball? What if it was 10 yards ahead? What if a player was trying some close control maneauvres in a crowded penalty area, and consequently ended up with the ball behind him and was tripped - how would you determine that?

It keeps things far simpler if the restart always occurs where the foul occurred.

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

See Question: 33178