Question Number: 33222

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 4/7/2019

RE: Semi pro Adult

Steven Watson of Aberdeen, Aberdeen United Kingdom asks...

Hi, the defending player plays a back pass to the goal keeper but the back pass is poor which means the keeper pushes the ball wide with his hand. I presumed this was a foul but the ref waved play on.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Steven ,
I will assume the ball was kicked with his foot not redirected by another body part.

The idea behind this type of illegal handling by the keeper was originally to prevent time wasting, although there is certainly some relevance to the fact that a ball a defender chooses to direct towards his keeper, using his feet, is one that an attacker can pursue & pressure, KNOWING, the keeper is NOT permitted to pick it up.

In this case one might assume no attacker was inconvenienced by the action or in the vicinity to score and the fact that the keeper did what keepers do (prevent a goal from being scored ) is hardly surprising.

A referee can choose to look at the kicking action as an attempted clearance gone astray or a deflection or misdirection and consider the back pass aspect as irrelevant or doubtful, possibly trifling, principally because an INDFK in front of goal is certainly a good scoring opportunity. If we are to award such a easy chance to score out of essentially nothing we best be sure it is 100% a clear foul and the opposition was clearly wronged in some way..

If the ball is redirected say from a slide tackle using the foot by the defender, stripping the attacker of the ball, there is no offence should the ball make its way to the keeper, whereas a pressured pass from a frightened defender trying NOT to lose possession would be looked at differently, as in a deliberate mistake.

In this case only if an attacker was right there pressuring the deliberately kicked pass to the keeper. Right on the heels of that ball pressuring the keeper would I look to see if advantage could be played or an INDFK awarded. We are not looking for a gotcha type foul here although an opponent if thwarted could be upset .

The LOTG would permit an INDFK from the point where this handling occurred, subject to the special circumstances in the goal area if it WAS deemed as an illegal action. Here it was play on and most likely the best, if not the only option .
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Steven
Once the ball is deliberately kicked to the goalkeeper the quality of the kick is irrelevant. So when the goalkeeper touches the ball with his hand it is an IDFK from where the ball was touched.
Now there will be times when the kick to the goalkeeper is doubtful.
These include a tackle, a mis-kick that goes astray, a clearance etc.
Have a look at these two videos
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7esEwniKXqQ
This is the other end if the scale and neither should in my opinion have been called as IDFKs.
Some time ago I had an instance in a game where a defender while trying to play a ball from the teams oen kick out, kicked the ball back towards his own goal. I did not know what he was doing and the goalkeeper made a good save by pushing the ball over the crossbar. I awarded a corner kick with no question about a *pass back *. I felt there was doubt as to what the defender was attempting? Was it a poor pass back, was it a mis kick? It certainly required a save by the goalkeeper.
In the absence of certainty I feel the best decision can be to do nothing.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Steven,

The law states it's an offence if the keeper handles the ball after it has been deliberately kicked to him/her by a teammate.

So, the kick must be deliberate, and the keeper must be the intended recipient. If, for instance, the referee thinks the defender was trying to clear it over the goal line, but did it poorly, and the keeper handles it to try stopping it then this is permitted (although there's always the risk the referee doesn't see it that way!). That's just one example.

By your description, an offence has occurred - the fact that the pass was poor is irrelevant as long as it was deliberate and the keeper was the intended recipient.

I only mention the above example as it might be that the referee didn't think the keeper was the intended recipient - I wasn't there, I'm just offering one possibility. If the ball glances off an opponent after the kick, that would also cancel out the offence.

As Ref Dawson states, if the kick was made under a high pressure situation - say, kicking the ball out of a tackle - that may introduce doubt as well.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Steven,
It's a little tricky to tell what exactly took place here, from your description. You talk about a 'back pass' but that could mean different things to different people. There are various ways that a player can pass the ball to their goalkeeper without it being an offence. If the ball was propelled with any body part other than the foot or ankle, or if it was kicked but not deliberately, there is no offence. It also doesn't matter in which direction the ball was directed. It would only be an offence, if the keeper handles the ball after it ''has been deliberately kicked to the goalkeeper by a team-mate.''

Even if the ball was kicked, it's still not quite clear to me whether this would be an offence. You say that the 'back pass' was poor but do not provide any other details. If it was 'poor' in the sense of being a mis-kick, misdirected play, deflection or scuffed clearance attempt etc, then the referee may have decided that this was not a ball deliberately kicked to the goalkeeper.

I wouldn't like to make a definitive judgement on this without actually seeing the incident.

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

See Question: 33233