Question Number: 21938

9/11/2009

RE: Select Under 14

Joe of Louisville, ky us asks...

During a recent tournament game, my daughter's team was attacking. One player shot, keeper attempted a diving save and trapped the ball, only to have it pop out and one of our girl's tapped it in the goal. At first, the center ruled a goal but the AR raised his flag. After consulting, the center waived off the goal and moved our girls out of the goal box and rolled the ball back to the goalie for the restart. We never understood why the goal was waived but the restart is confusing. If offside, delay or pdm, shouldn't the restart have been an indirect kick? If the AR ruled the ball never crossed the goalline, shouldn't the restart have been a dropped ball?
Thanks.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

So once the referee conferred with the AR! The decision taken was to disallow the goal and the referee rolled the ball to the keeper after chasing away your players from the goal area to restart play? You needed to query the match referee because the restart has no basis in law?
If he believed the keeper had possession and your player may have kicked at her creating the loose ball DFK or if the player scoring was offside INDFK only a free kick coming out would make sense? If the ball did not cross the goal line and a whistle was deemed to be inadvertent then a drop ball would be correct. If the keeper was deemed to be injured and play was actually stopped prior to the ball popping free or entering the goal again a drop ball is feasible.

We can only surmise that the referee was inventing some fair play ideology in his head to compensate for whatever it was that he deemed to have occurred? The long and short of it the referee has miss applied the laws and created a protestable situation since the restart has no basis in law. It is true the referee COULD in theory drop the ball directly to the keeper even though he can not fundamentally prevent you from challenging a drop ball. Whatever his rational only he knows? Record and report to the league, perhaps those who assign him to matches can inquire for you?

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

A mistake was made, but I cannot tell what.

There is only ONE event where the assistant referee should raise the flag when a goal has been scored - - - when the player who scored was offisde. If the assistant referee believes the goal should be disallowed for any other reason (including a foul), the assistant should stand at attention. But, if the call was offside, the restart should have been an indirect free kick.

My guess is that the assistant referee informed the referee that the keeper had possession of the ball (you indicated that the keeper had trapped the ball)) and the ball 'popped up' because of the action of an opponent. If so, the referee could disallow the goal because the player interfered with the keeper's possession of the ball, but this also requires an indirect free kick.

The referee should not have restarted the ball dropping the ball unless play was stopped for some other reason - - burst ball, injury, dog runs onto field; parent tries to prevent goal, etc.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

If play was erroneously stopped, for example if the ref believed the ball was across the goal line but the AR told him it was not, then the restart should be a dropped ball. If that was the case, the only mistake the ref made was his mechanics. He could have easily arranged it to drop the ball to the goalkeeper, but he should not have rolled it to her.

Any other reason for stopping play would result with some form of free kick.

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

See Question: 21964