Question Number: 32327

Kicks From The Penalty mark 3/22/2018

RE: Competitive Under 18

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

So here's one I had not seen before. Here's the situation (and I'm sorry for the long explanation LOL):

Tournament with two groups of three teams each. The first day, the three teams in each group play each other in a round robin (two games for each team). The first place team in each group plays in a championship the second day, and the second and third place teams play each other in consolation games.

After day 1, my daughter's team was second in their group. In the other group, the two top teams tied each other and both beat the other team by the exact same score so all tiebreakers were cancelled out. Tournament rules say the tie must be resolved by kicks from the mark, so the two teams got together in the morning of the second day to decide who would play in the final and who would play in the consolation. We decided to watch to see who we would be playing, and because these shootouts are always dramatic.

So there is a blue and a white team. Blue got to kick first. Now the field where this was taking place was a multipurpose turf field with many permanent markings for different sports. The penalty spot was yellow along with all the other soccer markings. American football markings were white.

The first blue kicker placed the ball on the yellow penalty spot, and shoots, and the white keeper makes the save. Now the white keeper turns out to be the first shooter for her team. She proceeds to place the ball on the WHITE spot about a yard or two further away from the goal (this marking is where the point after touchdown spot is in American football). No one ... I mean NO ONE notices. She proceeds to fire the ball off the crossbar. Now while the next blue player has been given the ball and is placing it on the correct yellow spot, it is at this point that the white team's coach realizes the error that occurred and brings it to the attention of the CR (rather loudly). The CR decides to allow the white keeper to retake her kick from the correct spot, which she scores on and the white team ends up winning the shootout 4-3 and advances to the championship. Overhearing the blue team, of course they feel cheated by the decision.

So, do you think this was handled in the best way by the CR? The only other option I can think of was to let the original kick stand even though it was taken from 1-2 yards further away than it should have been.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Aaron,
For me, although having originally contributed to an unfortunate situation by what seems to have been an oversight, the referee has subsequently handled this correctly. The previous penalty was not properly taken and although a standalone penalty shoot-out is not a normal game scenario, I think this is still a situation where because play has not restarted, the referee can change their decision and allow a retake.

Answer provided by Referee Joe Manjone

This was correct procedure by the CR. The referee is allowed to change a decision as long as the ball has not been put into play after an error. Since the error was discovered and corrected before the next kick and before the ball was again in play, a correction could be and apparently was legally made.

Hopefully, your daughter's team won the tournament.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Aaron,
it may seem unfair but it is fair and correct according to the LOTG. The correct restart was not taken and it was realized before the next restart thus the change to make it proper is correct!
Darn those cluttered fields lol
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Aaron
Good to hear from you.
As I alway say in such situations prevention is better than cure so the referee should have been wary of two penalty marks and set up accordingly. Ball placement at a PK is a key decision so that should be a priority particularly at KFTPM when there are few other factors to be dealt with other than GK being on the line.
In Law the referee was entitled to do what he did as the next kick has not happened and the first kick by the GK was patently incorrectly taken from the wrong mark. So the referee was correct in his decision.
That though is no consolation to the Blue team who feel hard done by. I can assure you that if the retake was for encroachment they would also feel hard done by.
Poor procedure by the referee allowed the Blue team to have a gripe that could have been avoided. Also somewhat disappointing that the White coach did not raise his concerns before the kick was taken. Did the coach believe that the kicks were from the white mark and make no mention of the first Blue kick which was already taken from the yellow mark. Had it not been saved would that have been questioned?