Question Number: 32318

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 3/18/2018

RE: Intermediate Under 14

Phil of Tarzana, CA United States asks...

This question is a follow up to question 32316

This is a follow-up to Question Number: 32316. I thought that you could drop to your knees or ground to pass the ball to the keeper, as long as you hadn't placed the ball on the ground, using your feet.

In fact, I remember a La Liga game (I think a couple of years ago) where 2 players were rushing for a ball that was near the goal line, but away from the keeper. The defender (& possibly the attacker, I can't recall) slid out of bounds & the ball was about 1 foot inside the goal line. The defender quickly crawled to the ball & headed it to the keeper, who picked it up.

There were no repercussions & I thought this was legal, as no trick was used.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Phil
You may have recalled this incident
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8b88k1ZxDuQ
No IDFK was called and in my opinion the normal play would have been to use a foot rather than diving to the ground to head it. I felt the referee got it incorrect as the only reason he dived to head the ball was to get around Law12.
Have a look at this one
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ccgpQBObhdc
The Red player uses the same trick to play the ball to his goalkeeper. The referee deemed it circumvention, a caution and an IDFK.
Here is another and one that I believe was legal and it should not have been a caution
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-IMP19M5MrQ
Trickery for me is any contrived or unnatural way of playing the ball in an attempt to circumvent the requirements of Law 12 when passing the ball to the goalkeeper. Clear examples of trickery as mentioned by Referee Grove on the IFAB circular include a player who deliberately flicks the ball with the foot up to the head, so as to head the ball to the goalkeeper or the player going to ground to knee, head the ball and deliberately pushes the ball to the goalkeeper with the knee or head.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Phil,

I have some sympathy for a ball that has NOT ever touched your feet it is moving towards you and in say sliding to the ground you flail away and use the knee or shin to knock it away towards your keeper. As you are aware the LOTG do not STRICTLY forbid using those body parts but they do say if you do it to circumvent the concept of using the feet to get the ball to the keeper then it is.

If you were say on the ground already and a ball was lying there with an opponent trying to score you lunge with a head or knee to knock it to the keeper or keep it out of the goal it SHOULD be obvious there was no circumvent as there was no opportunity to use the feet at all.

NO referee should look for a way to punish a defender trying to defend to the best of his ability just because it looks a little odd. I think there is some room for your interpretation but as my colleague Ref McHugh is fond of saying if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck chances are it is what it is!
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Phil,
Even though as you say, there have been examples of referees allowing it (perhaps in part because of ref McHugh's point about it being less well understood) it is still a technique that was specifically prohibited by the IFAB circular that introduced the concept of circumvention.

Let me just remind you of what circular 488 listed as examples of deliberate tricks:

''Examples of such tricks would include: a player who deliberately flicks the ball with his feet up onto his head in order to head the ball to his goalkeeper; or, a player who kneels down and deliberately pushes the ball to the goalkeeper with his knee, etc.''

I think it's also the case that many referees these days are just so unused to seeing circumvention that they deal with it incorrectly due to its unfamiliarity.

I am not aware of anything that has ever been issued by the IFAB (or FIFA in the past) to suggest that it's OK if you haven't placed the ball on the ground with your feet.

For me, the decisive factor is not how the ball got on the ground but whether the player, having found the ball on the ground in a position where the normal and natural course of action would have been to use the foot to play the ball, instead contrives a convoluted and unnatural means of manoeuvring either the ball or their body into a position where it is possible to use the knee, head etc. to propel the ball.

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

See Question: 32323