Question Number: 30302

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 4/16/2016

RE: Competitive Under 12

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

Tough one ... again live it looked like #8 white swung and missed knocking himself over. There's a little bit of contact with #11 blue who doesn't appear to extend his arm or hip. Call was a DFK for white (just outside the box). If there was to be a call, that seemed to be a lucky break because it looked like the contact was inside the box to me. White scored anyway directly off the free kick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6z629e15V8

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Aaron
From what I see here it looks like a push by Blue defender on White forward. I could not see this being ignored as no foul in a game situation. Blues body language tells me contact and a foul. He just was never in a good position to challenge and he should have allowed his team mate to make the challenge and then cover around.
From the angle of view here it looks like it was inside the penalty area. This is where the CR will depend on the lead AR to accurately help with the location of the offence. Was the contact inside or outside the penalty area.
Sometimes if there is doubt or uncertainty on the offence or the location the referee may lean towards the lesser restart of a DFK rather than the penalty.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Aaron,
This looks like a pretty clear charge in the back for me. When challenging the ball, the player's need to approach the opponent with all due care - and for a defender running from behind, that means taking into consideration the fact that the attacker may slow to shoot or turn past another defender.
It looks to me like the attacker started to angle towards goals and the defender stepped in with a charge to the back. I'm not too concerned about whether the elbow was raised - even if not, there would be a shoulder in the back.
You can see the moment the defender decides to challenge - he turns his body side on slightly as he leads the challenge with his right side. To me, this looks like there was never a chance of this challenge being completed fairly. I'm not sure if the defender meant to charge from behind in a poorly considered moment, or if he anticipated the attacker being at a different angle, tried a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge and was slow to react to the opponent's position.
As for DFK / PK - very difficult to tell from this angle. Pausing the video at the 11 second mark, it looks like this is the moment of contact and white's left foot - his leading foot - seems to be just outside the PA, indicating it was probably outside the PA. Of course, it could be that he was leaning fowards and the 'point of contact' was on the line (thus inside the PA). It's impossible to accurately tell from this angle. The AR on the side will generally indicate to the referee if it is inside or outside the PA in cases like this, and from the start of the clip it looked like he was keeping up with play.