Question Number: 31343

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 3/13/2017

RE: Rec Under 17

Saul F. of Goshen, IN Usa asks...

Here is a scenario; if a defender is trying to kick a ball that is coming low on the ground and an opponent gets in the way and dives to header the ball and gets heads the ball but gets kicked by the defender as the defender tried to kick the ball is it a foul? And does the defender get sent off? How would you restart?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Saul
This question was asked recently in #31335

The opponent by diving to the ground may have placed himself in danger of getting kicked. That is playing in a dangerous manner( to himself) which is an offence and it has an indirect free kick restart to the defender.
Now there may be a situation when perhaps it is obvious to the defender what is going to happen and he has chosen to ignore that. There may times when it is not so clear in that the ball is in both the kicking and heading space. That then becomes a judgement call based on what the referee sees and opines.
If the referee opines that the defender knew what was going to happen and chose to ignore any risk to an opponent then it is a DFK restart for kicking an opponent and certainly reckless which is a caution and a dismissal for the use of excessive force. That is a very rare offence.
Most times it is the fault though of the player risking injury to himself by trying to head the ball close to the ground which is a foul against that player for PIADM not his opponent.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Saul,
we receive various versions of these scenarios, many quite recently, but when a player goes low for a header and a defender does what defenders always do, they try to clear their lines, it is a VERY risky and often unsafe action initiated by the attacker in what we call PIADM (playing in a dangerous manner} and rather than punish a defender who kicks the attacker we award an INDFK to the defender as we were likely trying to stop play before the altercation. Although if say the ball was out for a goal kick we might simply see if the player kicked is ok and go with the goal kick restart once his injuries were assessed. I have even seen a drop ball awarded for stopping to deal with the injury itself! I prefer an INDFK out myself! if this is an unfortunate accident created by the low header!

Now as in any situation mitigating circumstances and ITOOTR always play a part in the decision. Many a goal has been successfully scored with a low diving header and no boot to the head occurred and no PIADM was considered. If we do believe the low header was really there to be taken and only a very late kick occurs THEN the possibility of a caution or a send off and DFK/PK restart would be considered
Cheers