Question Number: 30415

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 5/16/2016

RE: Adult

Ken Lundy of Dublin, Ireland Ireland asks...

Here's a scenario: a referee awards a penalty and gives a yellow card to the player who committed the foul and then sends him off because it's his second yellow (correctly). A few moments later he blows his whistle to allow the penalty to be taken but does it too soon, without checking that the sent off player has left the field of play. A) If the penalty is missed, should he have it retaken? B) If the penalty is scored should he have it retaken? (The sent off player could not be deemed to be interfering with play, being only a yard or two from the touchline and well away from where the penalty was taken.)

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Ken
This is a referee mechanics issue. Play should not have restarted until the dismissed player had completely left the field of play.
Now if we look at it from a written laws perspective we have the following advice.
Under the current Laws of the Game a player that is sent off becomes an outside agent. Where an outside agent is on the field of play and he does not interfere with play the referee can and should allow play to continue. So the outcome of both kicks in A and B must stand. No retakes. They could only be retaken if the dismissed player, that is an outside agent, interfered with the ball as it travelled forward at the penalty kick.
Now this is about to change on the 1st June with the new law changes. From that date the sent off player will no longer be treated an outside agent and sent off players can commit penal fouls resulting in direct free kicks or penalties. So in the case of A the penalty is retaken if there considered to be interference in play and in the case of B the goal will stand. So as described there is no difference as there was no interference. However say the sent off player interfered with the REBOUND inside the penalty area in that case it is another penalty kick. Before it used to be a dropped ball for interference by an outside agent.

Answer provided by Referee James Sowa

Ken,

Referee McHugh has the right of it here. Assuming there is not any interference by the sent off player, the result of the kick should stand and the game continues. If the agent interferes, then we would look at rekicking.

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

See Question: 30432