Question Number: 30494

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 6/8/2016

RE: Intermediate Under 13

Phil of Tarzana, CA United States asks...

This question is a follow up to question 30492

I have follow-up questions, please.

1) What is a penalty goal, as that term was used?

2) Suppose Blue attacker kicks toward Red goal & Red substitute comes on the field, tries & fails to prevent the goal. That is a goal. Wouldn't that also be a goal under the old rules by playing advantage? Or would that have been a dropped ball?

3) Under the new rules, I'm not sure what the wording 'unless the ball enters the opponents' goal' is supposed to add. If the ball is heading toward the Red goal & a Blue substitute enters the field, but doesn't affect the play, does the goal still count?

Thanks in advance,

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Phil
1. In some sports the referee has powers to awards a penalty score even if the score does not technically happen. Typically it occurs where the referee believes that without the infringement the score would have happened. There has been calls for this sanction by some in the game. An example would be the infamous Suarez deliberate handling on the line to prevent Ghana scoring in the 2010 WC . If a penalty goal was part of the laws the referee could have awarded the goal rather than the penalty kick. That I believe is as yet a step to far for officialdom.
2. The new principle relates mainly to outside agents or objects such as a spectator, ball, dog etc as play had to stop with no possibility of advantage in those situations. I also think that the wording encourages referees to allow play to continue as it is now clearly stated. So in your example advantage could be played under the old laws. It could not have been if it was an outside agent. The referee now can just allow play to continue.
3 Difficult wording in this new law. I believe that IFAB is saying that a team cannot score on itself in such circumstances. That would be exceptionally rare anyhow.

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

See Question: 30505