Question Number: 31387

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 3/25/2017

RE: Adult

Samuel Joe Wusseh Okyere of Greater- Accra, Ghana asks...

just Last Sunday in Ghana, there was a game between two rivals that Hearts of Oak against Asante Kotoko.

in 82 minutes, Hearts of Oak striker shoot a ball out of the 18-yard box and Asante Kotoko defender dived in the box to block the ball on the ground.

Was that incident a penalty offence for blocking goal scoring opportunity or not?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
Your description does not give enough information. I assume the ball hit the defenders hand while the ball was bound towards goal?
The first question for the referee to decide is whether the handling was deliberate or not. Simply hitting the hand on its own is not sufficient to make the contact deliberate handling. If the referee does not deem it deliberate then there is no offence.
Now if the referee decides that the player deliberately used his arm to stop the ball the next question is whether the handing denied an obvious goal. That is also a matter of opinino as to what would have happened without the foul. If say the ball was going wide then there is no denial.

Addendum
Thanks to my colleague Referee Dawson who has found a video of the incident I would agree that it was a penalty. The defender has thrown himself in the path of the ball and in my opinion made himself bigger through the use of his arms. As it is not clear what would be the outcome of the shot the referee cautioned the defender. So correct decision for me.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Samuel,
the defender went TOWARDS the attacker threw himself leading with the arm into his feet. Better would be to cover the face and fall into the flight path. Easy PK no one can rush at the attacker, lead with the arm and not expect it to be seen as a deliberate action. The fact he turned his back likely led some to think it was off the back not arm. GREAT job by the referee, he was in a great spot to see it AND the crappy whiney team that accused him of cheating OWE him an apology and should be fined by the league .

Although the ball flight appeared to be at the goal the fact it was not a DOGSO and a send off likely was there were other defenders about including the keeper in behind plus a pk is still a scoring opportunity.

http://pulse.com.gh/sports/football/hearts-1-0-kotoko-this-footage-vindicates-referee-samuel-sukah-id6428016.html


As this video above exonerating the call WITHOUT QUESTION is similar to ESSE my mentor for the 1998PK call against Brazil in the World cup. I suggest the losing team WATCH the video BELOW the referee in the eye of the storm to learn something about fair play!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-lNODXuA6k

Cheers