Question Number: 26134

Law 5 - The Referee 4/2/2012

RE: select Under 14

Brian Miller of Littleton, MA USA asks...

In a game, a player shoots the ball on goal, over the keepers reach. A defending team player jumps up and successfully deflects the ball with his hand, but the ball falls to the ground and rolls into the net. The referee calls the play dead and awards a penalty shot as well as a red card to the defender, because the shot would have otherwise gone into the net. On the ok, the keeper made the save. My question is could/should the referee let play continue as advantage to the attacking team and let the goal stand?

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Yes. Even top referees hate it when they are too quick to blow the whistle in these situations. Far better to wait and see what happens.

It most cases, both teams would prefer a goal and yellow card to a penalty kick and a red card.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Brian
The 'best' decision is always to play advantage and to award the goal. While the success rate at penalties is high nonetheless there is the chance that the penalty can be missed.
What happens is that some referees are too eager with the whistle to stop play and this then means that advantage cannot then be played.
The most recent high profile of these type of decision was in the CL Final between Arsenal and Barcalona when a Barca goal was ruled out, Lehmann the Arsenal goalkeeper was sent off for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity and the restart was a DFK. The referee Terje Hauge afterwards regretted blowing the whistle early as he could have awarded the goal with a good advantage and then there was no needs for the red card.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUuCZZN9aio

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Hi Brian. Thanks for the question. The most advantageous thing in soccer is a goal. The referee should have played advantage, allowed the goal, restarted play with a kickoff, and could have shown the yellow card instead

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Either award the goal and give a caution for UB to the player who used the hand to try and stop the goal, or give a PK and a red card to the player who used his hand and PREVENTED a goal scoring opportunity (because the ref was too quick on the whistle).

We cannot give the goal AND a red card, because the red card only is used if the goal is denied(prevented).

In such situations, the wise referee holds the whistle just a couple of seconds to see what happens next - no one wants to take a goal away if it isn't necessary, and giving advantage allows us to find out if it is necessary.