Question Number: 32911

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 12/10/2018

RE: grassroots Adult

les sennett of Hull, east yorkshire UK asks...

An opposing player (defender) comes up for a corner, when delivered, the player shouts: 'keeper's', my defenders expected our own goalkeeper to come and collect the ball but he was still on his goal line and another player scored with a free header? Is this not ungentlemanly conduct? The goal was allowed to stand

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Les,
As described, this sounds like the offence of verbally distracting an opponent during play or at a restart. According to the Laws of the Game, this is unsporting behaviour and should be punished by a caution. If play is stopped to issue the caution, the restart is an indirect free kick.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Les
Without doubt what transpired was verbally distracting an opponent during play which is a caution for unsporting behaviour and an indirect free kick restart.
The player has cheated by shouting *keepers* which as you say give him a free header to score a goal.
Now the difficulty for the referee can be in crowded area of figuring out who actually shouted. If it was the goalkeeper or a team mate then nothing wrong. However an opponent cannot shout that with the intention of causing a defender not to play the ball.
I suspect the referee perhaps was unsure who shouted and in the absence of certainly probably had to award the goal.
Not any consolation yet probably the learning point is for defenders to pay less head to shouts in uncertain situations .
In my game yesterday a goalkeeper shouted for a ball which his defender ignored and cleared the ball away. It was a poor option by the GK and had the defender accepted the shout I believe a possible goal scoring opportunity was fairly certain.