Question Number: 24047

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 9/30/2010

RE: Competative Under 16

Tonia of Windham, NH USA asks...

A defensive foul occurs inside the penalty area. The referee blows the whistle and indicates a direct kick which should actually be a penalty kick. The ball is located at rest outside the penalty area near where the penalty occurred, no closer to the goal than where the penalty occurred. Before anyone can move, an offensive player kicks the ball into the goal. Does the goal stand? If a PK is a direct free kick from the advantageous location of the penalty mark, I feel that the offensive player was justified in trading the advantage of position for the advantage of time (surprise) and the goal would stand. On a DFK the kicker can normally take the kick as soon as he is ready unless he wants space.

Answer provided by Referee Gene Nagy

Tonia, let me get this straight. The referee gave a DFK outside the penalty area (PA) even though it happened inside the penalty area. So who said it was inside the PA? It seems to me the referee judged it to be outside the PA. I cannot think of any reason why the goal should not stand.
What seems to have happened is that the attackers were awarded a DFK and they put the ball in the net. That is how many goals are scored. Provided the ball was stationary and placed where the referee said the foul occurred, it has to be a goal.
Just for the record, indirect or direct, the attackers are allowed to take the kick as soon as they want to. Same on corner kicks. PKs need two whistles: once when the foul happens and second time to signal for the kick to be taken because there is a bunch of stuff the ref has to do and the kicker has to wait for that to be done.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Tonia
The referee has decided that the foul happened outside the penalty area so it is a direct free kick from that point. Also it is not a trade off. If the foul happened inside the penalty area it is a penalty kick.
If the attacking team take a quick free kick and kick the ball into the goal I see no reason why it would not be allowed. The only possible reasons are that the ball is moving, it was not taken from the correct spot or the restart is on the whistle due to teh issue of a caution, team has asked for 10 yards etc. However should the attacking team take a QFK it accepts the consequences of the ball hitting a player and should that happen play continues.