Question Number: 31413

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 4/1/2017

RE: select, competitive Under 13

Mark Millen of Ellicott City, MD USA asks...

What is call when a youth girl player protects her chest with arms in front elbow tucked to side on a DFK or other, and during normal play in Defensive third in a wall or defending position?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Mark
There are two schools of thought here and also on the circumstance.
In a defensive wall there is no problem with using arms for protection provided the player just stands there and allows the ball to make contact. The arms / arms are placed in a position before the kick. Jumping up or moving into the ball negates the protection part. The former USSF Advice to Referees stated that in placing hands or arms to protect the body at a free kick or similar restart is not likely to produce an infringement unless there is subsequent action to direct or control the ball. That is still relevant today.
Now in defensive play many referees opine that a player should not use the arms in the manner you describe. It is never seen at the higher levels of the women's game yet it appears to be a coached tactic at underage levels. Now we know that at younger age groups players have a fear of the ball and react defensively to a ball kicked at them. I have waved away calls for handling in situations where it was just plainly obvious that the player reacted defensively to the ball in a startled manner raising their arms for protection. As player get older they find ways of playing the ball that do not ask the handling question. That should not be confused with rage deliberate action of knowingly raising the arms to control and play the ball
I also think that there is a legacy issue here going back many years when some opined that the method you describe was acceptable for girls to chest the ball. A sort of *well it would have hit the player on the body anyway* so the only benefit is protection. That is flawed thinking as the player has used the arms to assist in playing the ball. If the player does not want to get hit by the ball then find ways for that to not happen.
If I was to make a call on a player raising her arms up into her chest area to play the ball as described I would call that as deliberate handling.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Mark,
This sort of scenario has been the subject of several approaches. First, let's look at the law of deliberate handling. Among other things, referees are to consider the position of the arms, whether the arm has moved towards the ball, and the opportunity of the player to react to the ball.
What that boils down to is that the players have an obligation to avoid ball-arm contact if they can reasonably do so. If a ball is blasted at a player from 5 yards away we can expect them to tuck their arms into the body as a self-protective reflex, because they have no opportunity to respond otherwise. If that same shot has come from 20 yards away (we're talking about visibility here - if the player was unsighted until the ball was 2 yards away then the distance has become less significant), then you wouldn't be allowing this because the player has had ample opportunity to react in another manner.

For quite some time I've seen an interpretation that female players should be allowed to place their arm across their chest and then control a ball in this fashion, as long as the arms were tucked in - under the argument of protecting a sensitive area.

I firmly believe this is incorrect. It is the responsibility of the player to know how to play the ball - and a properly chested ball places the player at no risk. After all, if the risk was there and unavoidable, we'd see high-level women doing this. But we don't, so clearly the ball can be chested safely and painlessly.

I understand that, when dealing with lower ages/grades, there's an increased chance of misjudgement when chesting the ball resulting in a painful encounter - but at all levels this is the responsibility of the player. If the player doesn't have confidence in their ability to play the ball without causing themselves pain, then that doesn't permit them to use their arms to control the ball 'just in case'. Either take the risk or find another way to play it.

An example is heading the ball - I've seen low grade players misjudge a header and get hit in the face with the ball. Would you permit these players to put their arms in front of their head at every header and play the ball like that? Of course you wouldn't - so don't treat this any different.

The common argument is that it's the same as men protecting their groin in the wall. Well, it isn't. In the wall we're again looking at a scenario where they know they don't have time to react well to a shot and that's not a part of the body they can move out of the way. But if a male player placed his hands over his groin and watched a ball bouncing towards him from 20 yards away and stood there letting the ball hit his hands, you'd penalise it - because he had ample opportunity to avoid ball-hand contact. Similarly, I would have no problem with a female player placing arms across the chest in the wall - because having little time to react here is different to the decision during play to place arms across the chest to control the ball in lieu of actually chesting the ball properly.

So players can certainly protect themselves - and the lower the grade/age, the more flexible you are going to be with these protective actions. You need to differentiate between a protective action where you couldn't reasonably expect the player to have responded otherwise, and when the player has deliberately made a decision to place arms across the chest then permitted the ball to strike the arms.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Mark,
Whatever the gender of the player and no matter where the potential infringement occurs, the same provisions of the law on handling are in force.

If the referee judges that this was the ''deliberate act of a player making contact with the ball with the hand or arm'' then they should award a direct free kick.

Again, as per normal, the referee must consider the following factors:

''the movement of the hand towards the ball (not the ball towards the hand)
the distance between the opponent and the ball (unexpected ball)
the position of the hand does not necessarily mean that there is an infringement''

In the case of the player in a defensive wall and using the body position you describe, the last two of those three factors probably become more relevant than the first, bearing in mind that since the position of the hand does not necessarily mean there is an infringement, it follows that it also doesn't mean there isn't.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Mark,
protecting ones self with arms across the breast is not a crime.
Yet the need to BE protected diminishes with
AGE & SKILL
HOW fast & HOW far the ball is travelling
HOW aware the player is in figuring out the TIME to do anything deliberate or simply responding with instinctive reactions.
I have had youth place their hands on top of their head on a highball coming down because they were afraid to head it. Not withstanding the new USA mini youth laws prohibiting heading. I find the REASONING to seek a free kick for the foul of deliberate handling is often confused with the justification parameters in play by not considering the intent of this action given it is the use of the word deliberate a careless foul requires no deliberacy we judge the action undertaken and its subsequent result by one player against another . Given the ball is an inanimate object responding to outside stimuli to move we know the ball is not at fault for planning to get in the way of the arms . We look to the player for their deliberate action by which they are using the arms to deliberately control the ball.