Question Number: 31730

Law 14 - The Penalty kick 8/24/2017

RE: Adult

Douglas Wix of Liverpool, Merseyside United Kingdom asks...

This question is a follow up to question 31689

This is probably repetetive to the referees viewing this & dont wish to harp on about goalkeepers moving re penalty kicks but again last night Pickford was a yard off his line before the ball was kicked,no retake nor yellow card. Why do they bring in the revised rule/law yet referees do not adhere to it. Can I also say the commentator said nothing & 2 former Everton players & studio presenter said nothing. Maybe if a referee adheres to the law and gives a yellow or 2nd yellow to a goalkeeper it would stop it happening.
I have the feeling I will get the same answers as before. Maybe commentators dont know the laws but the referee does & maybe soon I will even see a RETAKE! Many thanks in advance for reading this. Cheers.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Douglas
I watched the save and it was not the most blatant of encroachment that I have seen or would expect to be called. I freeze framed it a few times and it looks like the moment the ball was kicked Pickford had his left foot still on the line.
Now I can assure you that at pitch level and in real time that level of encroachment will look minimal to the referee and AR. There are no appeals whatsoever from the opponents and the kicker reaction is one of a poor penalty rather than one of being infringed against by encroachment.
Note that there is not one attacker rushing up to the referee complaining about an unpunished offence.
I think that we are going to have to live with this for the foreseeable future as one of the those infringements that are technically present yet ignored as trifling. As Referee Grove mentions that as it is now a mandatory caution for GK encroachment the chances of a retake is even less. Say Pickford was on a caution what would be the reaction be towards the referee if the GK was sent off. That is not unique to the game as we can throw in the 6 second rule, impeding at corner kicks, illegal shielding with the ball not within playing distance, taking thrown in from the *wrong* place as infringements that are not dealt with.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Douglas,
a step out is pretty normal by the keeper as the foot is just contacting the ball
You get them out at the 6 yard goal line well then there is a case for a retake for sure.

The encroachment by defenders & attackers though because it has LESS effect on a miss or goal tends to get even less scrutiny yet it is illegal lfor them to enter. Usually there are guys running through the penalty arc that get involved and are not punished. I watched a recent PK where it was tapped forward and the player who scored was CLEARLY encroaching yet the goal was not called
back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaPjKsBnMQk

I give you the referee who did and wished he did not! sigh The longest penalty taken ever 6 attempts Tunisia vs Serbia (Olympics 2004)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwtvP9iqQws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJwAE5Mtrxc

MLS retakes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuhxUIDQmPc
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Douglas,
While I agree that there are sometimes some blatant examples of keepers moving off the line before the penalty kick is taken and this going unpunished, I don't think this is one of them.

Similarly to my colleagues, I have reviewed the footage of this and I would agree with them that with the benefit of freeze frame, we can say that the keeper here had at most, one foot off the line at the moment the ball was struck and that at normal speed this would be almost impossible to spot.

I have mentioned this earlier but I think the recent change may have made some referees more reluctant to call this offence unless it is overwhelmingly obvious and egregious since it could lead (in the case of it being a second yellow card) to a keeper being sent off for what many would consider a trifling or doubtful offence, at least in the kind of example we are discussing here.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 31732