Question Number: 31577

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 6/3/2017

RE: Youth Under 14

Dave Greene-Taylor of Bromley, Kent UK asks...

A referee recently gave a handball decision against our goalkeeper.

The keeper was outside the penalty area but the ball remained on the 18 yard line.

The ref said that the ball must be inside the line.

This is the first instance that I have heard of where the ball must be totally outside the line to be counted as out.

Please advise

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Dave,
A couple of issues at play here:
The laws state that lines form part of the area they enclose - so the Penalty Area lines form part of the penalty area.
Most fouls are considered at the point of contact - so for a normal tripping foul, the location is the point of contact on the opponent (Eg opponent running into the PA but the foot still outside the PA is clipped, and the foul is outside).
For Deliberately Handling the Ball (DHB), it's just the overall position of the ball - not where on the ball it was.
So, if 99% of the ball is outside the PA but a sliver is still on the line, then it's still in the PA. And it doesn't matter where on the ball it's handled - the ball can be in the position described and the keeper handles the portion outside the PA, but because the ball is considered in the PA then this is legal.
Understandable judging position like this can sometimes be difficult for the referee - especially without neutral AR's - but unless the referee is 100% certain that the ball was WHOLLY outside the PA and its lines, then he should not have penalised the keeper.
Another incident that tends to cause a little bit of confusion is keepers releasing the ball right on the line to take a kick. Sometimes keepers do this as they're running, meaning they release the ball on the line, but are a step outside the PA before it's actually kicked. This is legal - again, the ref needs to be absolutely certain it was handled while wholly outside the PA for it to be a foul.
And, of course, the handling must be deliberate to be a foul (carrying the ball outside the PA is deliberate - because while stepping outside may be accidental, handling the ball was deliberate).

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Dave,
If the ball was, as you describe it, on the penalty area line, such that the whole of the ball was not outside the penalty area, then this is not a handball offence.

I don't quite understand your last sentence, it is actually true that the ball must be totally outside the line to be counted as out but you are saying that is not what happened here.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi David
For a ball to be outside the penalty area it must be totally over and outside the line. So all of the ball has to be over all of the line. If part of the ball is touching the line or any part of it or the plane of the line then it is deemed to be inside.
That principle applies to all lines including boundary lines or placement marks such as the corner arc, penalty mark etc. We regularly see at corner kicks all being placed on the line with most of the ball over the line yet a small part of it is touching the line. That is considered inside the arc.
Now the challenge here for any referee is determining the location of the ball at a split second in play.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sJrhhLc07M0
In this video it is very difficult to determine the exact position of the ball at the moment the ball was played by the hand. It looks like it was played by the goalkeeper outside the line yet when uncertain the best decision is to allow play to continue.
In your example had the referee said the ball was outside the oenslty area the only debate would be whether that was correct or not and a matter of opinion.