Question Number: 31899

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 10/13/2017

RE: Competitive Under 19

Aaron Speca of Virginia Beach, VA United States asks...

This one is much less clear-cut to me than the last one. This was called a foul (in the box resulting in a PK) against the blue defender. Looked more to me like #30 red initiated the charge and then just fell, more like a no call.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcsFIh9HqXg

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Aaron
This is a soft penalty kick and I can see where your analysis has come from. Red falls to ground too easily for me and from this distance it is hard to say if it purely caused by the contact by Blue. There appears to be foul contact by Red first on the back of Blue. Does Blues right leg make contact with Reds leg after that. Interestingly there was a penalty awarded in similar circumstances in the Watford v Arsenal game.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LoAi80wZo2c
Many felt it was also a soft penalty yet the referees call to make.
In your instance the call seemed to have been made instantly with no dissent. I can tell you that such a call in my part of the world would not be taken kindly, not that such a reaction is good or acceptable.
Now as I have said many times it is always difficult analysing a call in isolation. Refereees can be influenced by other factors in a game. While it should not happen the human nature side interferes in calls. By that I mean that score, time in the game, previous non calls, players behaviour etc can have an effect on calls. While that should not happen unfortunately it does.
I would also say that the referee is not close enough to play here and this call was made from distance. If the referee is closer he can *feel* the type and level of contact. It also helps sell the decision as if he is say 10/12 yards away with an immediate point to the penalty mark. Then we can be more confident that he has seen the contact.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Aaron,
definitely do not like NOT seeing the referee in the picture frame. I tried to see if the right leg or foot off the blue defender touched the back of the red attackers leg or foot but it is just not conclusive for me to determine if there was definitive contact. Their coming together if anything red was a bit of an arm push into blue I thought. It looked as if she stumbled but no way I say yes for a penalty from the camera angle .
Cheers