Question Number: 31327

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 3/9/2017

RE: Professional

Naser of Amman, Amman Jordan asks...

Hello

If there are two offences in the same time from two player - different teams- , the 1st is in a careless manner , the 2nd is holding but denied an obvious goal scoring opportunity, inside penalty area .

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
The Law has been updated here. Law 12 now requires the referee to punish the more serious offence. To quote the relevant section ** punishes the more serious offence, in terms of sanction, restart, physical severity and tactical impact, when more than one offence occurs at the same time**
Clearly the denying of a goal scoring opportunity is the more serious offence. The challenge though for the referee will be to determine if they did indeed occur at the same time. Rarely does that happen so for instance an attacker commits a careless foul on a defender such as a pull back and then the defender fouls the attacker denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity. In that instance the first careless foul by the attacker is punished not the second foul.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Naser,
As Ref McHugh says, it is very rare (certainly, I have never seen it either in any of my matches or in a game shown on TV) for two such offences to be truly simultaneous. One will almost inevitably occur at least fractionally before the other and so that is the one the referee must penalise. If the offences were actually simultaneouus, as unlikely as that may be, then the referee must punish the more serious offence, using the criteria ref McHugh has given above.