Question Number: 30783

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 9/19/2016

RE: Other

Paul Montopoli of River Vale, NJ United States asks...

What is the call if a goalie catches his own punt outside of the penalty area? It was a rec soccer game.

My advice (I am in charge of the youth refs that officiate the rec games) is that second touch by the goalie takes precedence over the hand ball, therefore indirect free kick from the spot of the foul. The logic I used is that the goalie 'needed' to touch the ball first...he could have headed it or kicked it and that would have been whistled dead for second touch by the goalie.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Paul
Unfortunately you are incorrect on two counts. Had the goalkeeper simply played the miskicked punt such as a kick or a header there would have been no offence as the ball was in play so there is no second touch restriction. The 2nd touch violation only applies at a restart only.
The second point is that outside the penalty area the goalkeeper is like any other player so deliberate handling is a direct free kick from where the handling took place. It is never an IDFK and it is only ever an IDFK when the goalkeeper touches the ball with his hands inside the penalty area after being released from his possession or from a deliberate kick by a team mate.
As a final point the principle is that referees always punish the more serious offence. So a DFK restart will always take precedence over an IDFK offence. Referee Grove has given a good example of two offences at the same time by the same player with the more serious one punished.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Paul,

As Ref McHugh pointed out, there can be no 'second touch' infraction on a punt by a goalkeeper so it would simply be a matter of penalising the handball offence.

However, if there were such an infraction, for example if a keeper took a free kick from inside the area, then followed it outside the area and touched the ball again by handilng it, the more serious direct free kick offence would take precedence over the IFK 'second touch' offence.