Question Number: 23374

Kicks From The Penalty mark 5/25/2010

RE: Competive Under 19

Peter of Glasgow, Lanarkshire scotland asks...

This question is a follow up to question 23360

Thanks for all you replies, the reason why I asked the question is that when this situation happened in a final where the opposing team where taking the 5th penalty in the shoot out to bring the score to 4 each in penalties (if they failed to score we would have won the cup). Our keeper saved the shot as described, the assistant Referee called the referee over and the referee indicated a retake. As the coaches had to remain in the technical area we thought it was that the keeper had moved off his line. We then missed the next penalty and the opposing team scored. We asked for an explanation after the penalties where completed and where surprised to here that it was due to keeper touching the ball twice.

As you can imagine we where surprsised by the ruling but as the referee and assistant referees are the subject experts we accepted their decision. Over the next day or so we have been surprised by the ammount of conversation this caused from the hundred or so supporters who attended the final. So far no one I have spoke too has heard of this rule and this includes several referees.

This knock out cup has been running since August 2009 until May 2010 with our team getting through several rounds. So I hope you can understand the dissapointment of instead winnig the penalty shoot out, the cup we lost due to a poor decision.

Thanks for your comments and hopefully this tale will help other referees not make a similar mistake.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

The mistake you wrote about shouldn't have happened. It is a pretty basic premise that the kicker is the only one who cannot double touch a free kick or penalty kick. The keeper can keep handling the ball, juggling it, kicking it or whatever it takes to keep it out of his goal up until the time it goes in or leaves the field.

Please make sure the local or regional referee authorities are aware of this crew's performance, so that any necessary education can be updated. And, hopefully, this error will not be repeated.