Question Number: 32558

Law 14 - The Penalty kick 7/1/2018

RE: Adult

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

Simple question. Ref tells goalkeeper dont move off your line before ball is kicked,yet just now a clear infringement by Akinfeev but no retake. No one in tv studio mentioned it. Why no retake or scrap that law altogether. I expect you will just support the 2 officials!

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Douglas
Welcome back. I looked at both missed penalties and I can see how tight the calls were in real time. In both situations the Russian GK had one foot on the line at the moment of the kick. I have been on the line many times for penalty kicks and it is a hard call at times. At this level the players seem to accept that there is going to be a step encroachment and no appeal by Spain as they just saw them as two poor penalty kicks.
By the way these would have been reviewed by VAR and in addition to the two on field officials this would have been viewed by the VAR official and team. Obviously it was not blatant enough for retakes.
Have a look at the end of this video
https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=2m27s&v=E5JgTRLFsgI
In the Under 17 UEFA competition between Ireland and Netherlands the Irish goalkeeper was sent off for a second yellow on encroachment and a retake on the 5th penalty kick and needing to save it to continue kicks as Ireland had already missed a kick. The referee was berated on for his decision to caution and a retake. Some even called for his resignation!
I am certain Referee Kuipers was not going to order a retake on a one step encroachment with questionable timing in such tight situations with one foot on the line. He would have been harangued for such a tight decision that needs freeze frame technology to sort. Also the focus of the world game, debate would be about the referee decision not the correctness of the degree of encroachment. Very few referees are going to go there
I agree the law needs to be amended as the goalkeeper has to have a sporting chance of a save. That cannot be done without some degree of movement.
Addendum
The more blatant encroachment was by Schmeichel in the Denmark v Croatia game. That should have been a retake as he had both feet off the line yet it was not given.
During the Kicks from the Penalty Mark I would say that both goalkeepers encroached to some degree on all the saved penalties. Obviously not enough for retakes

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

See Question: 32571