Question Number: 25674

Law 13 - Free Kicks 10/28/2011

RE: Adult

charles of garden grove, calif usa asks...

Thanks for your answers.

Again, I am asking about where to spot the indirect foul commited by goalie.

In your article, You are to spot the ball where goalie picks-up the ball when defender passes back to the goalie veres if defender cicumvent the law(header or knee)then you spot the ball where defender commited the foul not the golie?

what is definition or law saying, kicking the ball verses cicumventing the law?

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Circumventing the Law is misconduct performed by the keeper's teammate and has nothing to do with what subsequently happens as play stops with the misconduct and the IFK is from the spot of the misconduct. The misconduct is the infraction.

Deliberately kicking the ball to his keeper is not an infraction. The infraction is if the keeper handles the ball. That's why the restart IFK is where the keeper handles the ball (unless inside his own goal area where the IFK is from the six yard line).

In soccer, the restart is usually where the infraction takes place. Exceptions are when the ball is already out of play and certain misconduct where the restart is where the ball was when play was stopped.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

The defender commits an act of misconduct as soon as the defender uses a trick to circumvent the laws concerning balls deliberately kicked to the keeper. The whistle should blow the moment the trick occurs. Under TLOG, it is not necessary that the keeper actually handle the ball. Thus, the restart is based on the location of the player's misconduct.

Absent a deliberate trick, the issue is only whether the goal keeper has committed a foul by touching a ball that has been deliberately kicked. The restart is where the foul was committed by the keeper - - where the keeper handled the ball.

'Passback' fouls are very rare. Deliberate tricks are even more remote.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Free kicks are taken at the spot the infraction occurs*. If it is a deliberate trick to circumvent the Laws, that spot is where the trickster was. If it is for the goalkeeper handling the ball when it is not legal, it is at the site of the handling.

* Remember that no inbound IFK restart can be within the goal area. The ball must be moved out to the nearest point on the '6 yard line'.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Charles
The defender can legally play the ball back to the goalkeeper with any part of his body and the ball can be handled by the goalkeeper with the one exception of a deliberate kick by a team mate. What the player cannot to is manufacture a trick where he puts the ball in a position himself to knee, chest, head the ball to circumvent the Law.
That circumvention happens at that spot. It makes no difference if the GK touches the ball with his hands or not. The referee cautions the player for unsporting behaviour and the restart is an IDFK from where the offence took place.
Now a player is allowed to kick the ball back to the goalkeeper. The offence happens when the GK touches the ball with his hands. So the law states that it is an IDFK and the offence happens where the GK touches the ball with his hands which is where the IDFK is taken from.