Question Number: 22488

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 11/10/2009

RE: Travel Under 11

Brian of Jackson, NJ 08527 asks...

This question is a follow up to question 21593

If the ball was not intentionally thrown to the keeper by his teammate, does that affect the ruling? For example, the player taking the throw threw it toward his defender who didn't touch it, ball went past him and keeper came over to scoop up the ball. Ref did not call it in this case.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Brian
Mistakes happen in games and a player can intend to do one thing and something else transpires. In Europe say a defender throws the ball to a team mate who misjudges it or slips and the ball goes into the penalty area. The ball was not intended for the keeper so there should be no offence called here if the keeper handles the ball. The ball has to be deliberately kicked or thrown to the goalkeeper for the rule to apply. Normally a shout "Not a backpass" " Not deliberate" sorts out any call from the opposition for an IDFK.
In general I think too much is made of this particular rule. Its intention was to stop multiple passes to the goalkeeper who then would pick the ball up preventing an opponent challenging which restricted the opportunity for the ball to be challenged for in open play and it also ran down the clock. FIFA did not like to see this series of maybe 5/6 passes to the keeper all picked up hence this law was introduced. If it is not a blatant kick and its not time wasting I always give the benefit of any doubt to the keeper.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Unfortunately intent is not considered! Such a transgression can be overooked as trifling or doubtful under certian circumstances but not if an opponent is disadvantaged by the act. While the laws were changed to prevent the wasting of time, opponents now pursue these balls KNOWING the keeper cannot use the hands where as before it was a waste of effort since the best they could hope for was for the keeper to pick the ball up. The non use of hands CREATES scoring opportunities and that is a fact of this law!
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The two goalkeeper infractions are worded slightly differently in the Laws of the Game:
? touches the ball with his hands after it has been deliberately kicked to him by a team-mate
? touches the ball with his hands after he has received it directly from a throw-in taken by a team-mate

Notice the word 'deliberately' is missing from the throw-in offense. Instead it uses the word directly. If the ball goes directly from thrower to keeper (meaning no other player touches it, even a little brush), the keeper may not pick it up. It doesn't matter whether the thrower wanted the ball to go to the keeper or not.