Question Number: 33066

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 2/13/2019

RE: Competitive Under 19

Dave of Sacramento, CA USA asks...

Ball is bouncing around in penalty area...goalkeeper collides with a teammate and falls to ground holding his head as in head injury. Referee blows whistle as an attacker is about to shoot on the wide open goal. After stopping play it becomes apparent the goalie was faking to stop play. What are the correct referee actions and restart? Would you consider Send-off and PK or Caution and drop ball or something else? What is your reasoning behind decision?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Dave
Not an easy one.
First off hindsight is 20/20 vision. Had the referee waited a second or so the goal could have been awarded with no delay in treatment. I recall a somewhat similar incident a few years ago involving two defenders on a head clash with an immediate shot afterwards by an attacker and a goal awarded. Treatment was given as quick as had play been stopped for the injury. Some complaints yet they were easily dismissed on the basis of the immediate stop to award the goal allowed treatment.
Now as play was stopped in your example for an injury the correct restart is a dropped ball from where the ball was when play was stopped. As the whistle sounded no further play is possible.
I doubt any referee is going to be 100% plus certain that the goalkeeper was faking an injury in such situations involving a collision. If there was 110% certainty say on simulation the feigning of injury the referee should not stop play. The player can be still be cautioned at the next stoppage if required.
Under no circumstance can there be a sending off here nor a penalty kick. The goal has been denied by the referees decision to stop play. Okay there might be an argument in the absolute certain case of the GK feigning injury for a denial of a goal yet that final decision was not in the control of the player and if the referee is going to caution for feigning injury then play should not be stopped in the first place. The extent of the injury might have been exaggerated yet once there is an a collisions and an injury the extent of it is of no concern to the referee.
So really the only outcome is a dropped ball from where the ball was when play was stopped. Nothing else.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Dave,
Ref McHugh is right in saying that if the referee had waited just a second or so longer the goal could have been awarded and even if the keeper had been injured, a second or two would not have been an intolerable delay.

Having stopped play for a perceived injury however, the restart would normally be a dropped ball.

If, and only if the referee is absolutely, totally sure the goalkeeper was feigning injury, a caution could be issued and play restarted with an IFK. However, for the referee to be sure the keeper was feigning injury, they would have had to have seen that there was actually no contact or only very minimal contact, in which case there would have been no reason to stop play.

So for me, you can't have it both ways - either there was sufficiently clear and forceful contact for the referee to stop play immediately without waiting for the outcome and so it would be a situation where the referee could not be sure there wasn't actually an injury, or it was sufficiently clear there was no real injury so play would not have been stopped.