Question Number: 28149

Law 14 - Penalty kick 2/2/2014

RE: Adult

John Coates of George, Western Province South Africa asks...

Why are Goalkeepers allowed to move off the goal line by at least 1 to 1 1/2 metres before the ball has been kicked in a penalty kick and the referee does not have the penalty kick re-taken; soccer commentators do not make a comment and soccer analysts don't talk about it?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Usually when referees allow goalkeepers to move off the line, it's because they see the move as trifling - it has little or no effect on what happens. Or they don't consider a step or two to be enough of an infraction to be worthy of calling it. The commentators and analysts don't say anything because they agree.

Unfortunately, sometimes the referee won't call it just because she doesn't want to make waves. But that's much a much rarer occurrence.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi John
When the goalkeeper comes off the line and a goal is scored there is no need for a retake. If the referee determines that the movement of the goalkeeper or encroachment is not significant then he may consider it trifling and allow play to continue. It is not unusual for the goalkeeper to make a step just as the kick is taken and that is seen by those in the game as 'acceptable'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJwAE5Mtrxc
Here is an example of a penalty kick that was taken 6 times before the referee was happy that it was taken totally compliant with Law 14.
I don't believe it achieved very much other than causing hassle for the officials plus a caution.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi John,

The Laws of the Game allow for referees to ignore 'trifling' breaches of the law. So some encroachment (not just by the keeper, either; don't forget that if a player on the furthest point of the Penalty Arc (the 'D') moves level with the edge of the Penalty Area by the time the ball is kicked then he's encroached by 4 yards, but how often is that pulled up?) - the question here is, what is trifling?

If a keeper steps a yard off his line, is that beyond trifling? What if he does that and makes a fingertip save in the corner, versus him doing that and the ball being kicked straight over the crossbar?

Naturally what the kicker does will have an impact on how big an effect the keeper's actions were - although if we're only looking at 'impact on play' to determine if actions were trifling, then we'd never penalise players for encroaching into the PA!

Personally I think referees are generally too lenient on this area of the laws. As a result, players rarely expect it to be given - I've ordered a retake keepers for coming almost out to the edge of the Goal Area, or for players running into the PA almost level with the Penalty Mark, and everybody has been amazed it was given. Just demonstrates how difficult it becomes for any individual referee to apply the laws when many referees are lenient on it, and many players encroach with no expectation of the laws being applied.

The video posted by Ref McHugh is a well-known example to the refereeing community - general consensus is that, while 1 or 2 retakes may be justified, some of them should have been considered trifling.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 28184