Question Number: 30300

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 4/16/2016

RE: Competitive Under 12

Aaron Speca of Virginia Beach, Virginia United States asks...

Three clips from the same game - one video ...

1) Blue defender attempts to tackle ball away from red forward. Blue is last player to make contact with the ball, the ball goes to the keeper and he picks it up. I slowed it down as much as I could so we could see what the feet are doing. Call on field: intentional passback to keeper, red IFK restart. (Red scored off the IFK.)

2) Ball popped up by red player, strikes blue player. It looks to me like it hits him in the stomach. Even if it hit the arm, it certainly wouldn't qualify as intentional in my mind. Call on field: intentional handling, red DFK restart.

3) This was a strange one. When I saw it live, I thought the collision was a result of two players going hard. I can see the argument for a foul on blue on the replay. Call on field: This is the weird part - referee said he stopped play to make sure the keeper was alright, but no foul. But the restart was a DFK for red. I thought it should have been a drop ball if that was the reason for the play stoppage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGKEnFjF4OI

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Aaron
1. The video is not clear enough yet it does not look like a deliberate kick to the goalkeeper to me. Sufficient doubt to say play on in a challenge situation such as this.
2. I cannot see deliberate handling here. No appeal by anyone and I would simply allow play to continue. Not deliberate in my opinion and the tans were in a natural position and do not move towards the ball.
3. For me this is a foul on the goalkeeper. GK stops the ball albeit poorly and Blue makes contact with him. The AR on that side is seen signalling albeit poorly for a restart to Red. Referee if he stopped play to check on the GK then the restart would have been a dropped ball. If he went with a DFK to Red then he eventually got it correct in my opinion. Perhaps AR had an influence and he can change his mind if he receives further info or on reflection he got it wrong.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Aaron,

1) These incidents are difficult - the kick needs to have the keeper as the intended recipient. Was this the case, or was he simply trying to clear it over the backline? In some cases the defender does deliberately kick it back to the keeper when making a challenge like this and IFK is the correct call. Age and skill are certainly things the referee should take into consideration. Difficult to tell from the video, but I'd argue the benefit of the doubt should come into play here, with no offence. Also consider the defender is being fairly charged as he's making the kick - that's going to affect how successfully he plays the ball.

2) Deliberate Handling can be very difficult. It's one of those incidents where sometimes what you think you see isn't what you see - from the wrong angle you could swear it hit the player's arm when it's hit his body or chest. In the Australian A-League, the top-tier competition, there was recently a similar situation - a free kick given for DHB when it didn't touch his hand at all. But from the angle the referee saw it, I could understand how the view was deceptive. That was probably the case here - although the referee should have had a fairly front-on view of this incident. I suspect that simply being too far away from play may have had an impact here.
As to 'would it have been deliberate even if it did strike his arm?' - I'm assuming the referee thought the ball struck his right arm. The right arm comes up and out from the body after the ball is kicked, so if it did strike that arm, that would be a FK from me. It may have been the elbow tucked into the body that deceived the referee here - looks to me like it tidn't touch the arm though.

3) If play is stopped for an injury then the restart should be a DB. Unless, for instance, the referee consults with the AR during the stoppage and realises there was a foul (while that didn't happen here, the AR did, uncertainly, begin to signal for a red FK)
The two players have challenged for the ball - but the keeper managed to kick the ball while the blue player only caught his leg. That's a foul for me.