Question Number: 31709

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 8/15/2017

RE: Rec Adult

Russell of Sydney, Australis asks...

This question is a follow up to question 31704

The question from Jordan of Sydney does not specify which PA (not sure if done so deliberately), and so some panel responses are confusing.

Ref Dawson said 'If the two players are from the same team a penalty...' " but surely not if the fighting is in their opponents PA. I guess we are to assume Ref Dawson (and McHugh) are assuming the fighting is in their own PA.

But then Ref Grove spoke of if in the opponents PA '...If the two players are from the same team and fight in their opponent's penalty area this would result in a penalty kick.' How could it be a penalty kick if fighting in the opponents PA? Sure that would be a DFK.

Moving away from same team players, Ref Dawson said 'If it is an attacker & defender from opposite teams it will be a DFK or a PK depending on which end of the field they are in.'
How does that work? Irrespective of which end of the field they are in, if there is one from each team - it is the same at both ends of the field. particularly as fighting is generally an off the ball incident

Ref Voshol makes the important point of trying to establish who swung first, and as Ref Dawson intimates - imagine, after you have given early first use of the showers to both players, how you are going to sell the drop ball restart as you don't know who swung first.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Russel
sorry about the confusion, I did clean up my earlier answer or so I thought?
The restart for striking is a DFK depending on location and WHO is responsible it could also be a PK .
It is easy to send off for the VC be it the teammates or one off each team if that is what is occurring. The restart concept of NOT knowing if one from each team is harder because teammate = DFK or PK as we know it is their doing whereas separate team players fighting we need to pick one we see as the instigator in the act of the VC and depending on who and in which PA or part of the FOP the restart should be a DFK or PK. But I also surmise a drop ball from where the ball was given I cannot know who started this is a plausible restart to deal with an untenable situation.
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Russell
With some questions there has to be some assumptions made based on the question and how it is framed.
It is also assumed that the questioner has a basic knowledge of the law based on the wording of the question otherwise some answers could run to many many pages based on what ifs.
In this case as the question asked whether it was a penalty kick or not I made the basic assumption that the offence happened in the players own penalty area with the ball outside that area. I could not imagine a PK being awarded if they were in the opponents penalty area?
I apologise if that caused any confusion yet I believe the answers are clear.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Russell,
You are right that if the two players were from the same team and in the opponent's penalty area it would be a free kick not a penalty. I have updated my response. The question was a little confusing with the different possible permutations of which penalty area and which players were involved and I got a bit mixed up.

Sorry for the confusion.