Question Number: 31879

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 10/8/2017

RE: Competitive Under 19

Aaron Speca of VIRGINIA BEACH, VA United States asks...

The shot from red eventually comes and is knocked off the post. As a blue defender attempts to settle the rebound, the keeper comes out and covers. Whistle was blown for a 'passback' to the keeper. I felt there was no intentional play to the keeper in this case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5gT_hKYqkI

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Arron,
I kind of agree with you from the video it does look rather unintentional but the 2nd touch (given the 1st was a rebound) was the one the referee must of thought yes it was being deliberately kicked to the keeper. It is a bit of a gotcha call in my opinion it looked rather innocuous as poor skill more than a deliberate kick of the foot to the keeper but the referee had a different opinion.
His match His Decision His Reputation!
You are getting pretty good at these so are you a full-fledged referee yet??? lol
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Aaron
In the US the interpretation from my experience had been quite strict on the deliberate kick to the goalkeeper. There has been many questions on referees punishing kicks that in their opinion that were deliberate and some that were not meant for the goalkeeper just aimless kicks yet deliberate. The so called Triangle interpretation.
In this the video is poor yet there appears to be two touches by Blue? A poor first touch and a second one. If there are two the rebound argument has passed.
Also look at the position of the referee. He is looking at this from at least twenty plus yards and from the back of the Blue player through a group of players. He is not looking at it from the camera angle so this will have looked liked control of the ball and left for the GK which makes it a deliberate kick.
So I can see why it was given.
Learning point is two fold. The defender needs to have better control and kick it away either for a corner or a throw in. The GK when she sees the possibility of the referee deeming this to be control by the foot needs to kick the ball away rather than risk the IDFK as there is such a threat in such situations. GKs have become complacent on *kicks* not being considered as deliberate kicks to them by referees.