Question Number: 31291

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 2/23/2017

RE: Rec High School

Salvador Flores of Indianapolis , IN USA asks...

Ok I have a question so there's an obvious goal scoring opportunity by one team and one of the opponent uses his hand to stop the ball from going into the net. It rebounds off the defender's hand back to the player trying to score and kicks the ball again and misses he goal this time. What should the referee do? Because I know if hat happens but instead of the attacking player missing he scores, the referee would caution the defending player for trying to stop an obvious goal scoring opportunity with his hand.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

hi Salvador
My advice is to award the penalty kick and to dismiss the defender for denying an obvious goal using the hand. The incident will happen so fast that by the time the 2nd chance is taken the referee can still call the first offence. The referee does not signal advantage and just waits to see what happens. If the 2nd chance results in a goal then it should be awarded and the player is not dismissed but cautioned for the deliberate handling

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Salvador,
In this situation the referee should send the defender off and award a penalty. As Ref McHugh says, you needn't play the advantage here, just adopt a 'wait and see' attitude. Once you see what happens, then you can make your decision. If the ball ends up in the net, the goal has not been denied so the defender cannot be dismissed but must be cautioned. In your example though, since no goal was scored, the defender gets a red card for DOGSO-H.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Salvador,
we can grant a free pass off the red sleigh ONLY if a goal DOES occur. However, if the goal does not occur we would show the red card and send off the defender for incurring a DFK of handling the ball deliberately utilized to deny a goal! It would be ill advised to declare it an advantage off the rebound from the 1st illegal save then consider the miss as the restart reason but still send off the defender for the earlier denial of the goal. rather than go back to that 1st foul and restart with the DFK or PK depending on where the handling occurred!
Cheers