Question Number: 25701

Law 13 - Free Kicks 11/4/2011

RE: rec Under 13

Mark Dixon of dallas, tx usa asks...

I awarded an indirect free kick. I walked off 10 yards for the defender. I blew the whistle to restart. Before the ball was put into play, the defender charged the ball. I blew the whistle, the play continued, and a goal was scored. I had the kick retaken since I had already blown the whistle. What is the proper way to handle this?

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Once you blew the whistle, you had only one option. Caution the defender and have the kick retaken. With an IFK, a goal cannot be scored until the ball touches another player, so a ball touching the defender might be valuable to the kicking team.

The better option is to wait and see. If the ball touches another player and then goes into the net, award the goal and chew out the defender. If the ball hits the defender and there is no opportunity for the kicking team to score, stop play, caution the defender and have the kick retaken.

The tough calls occurs when the ball does not hit the onrushing defender, but also does not enter the goal. The referee needs to decide if the charge affected the kick in any way (something I am likely to decide in these circumstances). If so, then whistle, caution and retake.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Mark
The referee should adopt a wait and see policy on these encroachments. Had you waited a second or so you would have seen the ball destined for the intended target so you could have played advantage and allowed the goal.
If the ball was charged down you could have stopped play, cautioned the player and the free kick is retaken.
The more diffciult one to determine is the one where the ball is not affected and it is a matter of opinion as to wheter the encroachment interefered with the player's kick such as last minute change of trajectory, miskick etc.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

If the ball went directly into the goal it wouldn't have counted anyway but on free kicks close enough to score it's best to wait a few seconds and see what happens before blowing the whistle. Once you blew the whistle play stopped and you had no choice but to caution the defender and retake the kick.