Question Number: 33320

Other 5/7/2019

RE: Rec Adult

Chanakya of Bangalore, Kn India asks...

If a player A shoots, and it is heading for goal, and it unintentionally deflects of person B (from the same team) and goes into the goal. Whose goal is it?

Is it B, who got the last touch or A whose ball was on target In the first place.

I am not talking of intentional touch/deflection by B, or B being in the opposite team and hence not talking of own goal

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Chanakya
That is not a question that is of concern to referees or part of the Laws of the Game.
Clearly it s important in Fantasy Football, betting and leading goalscorer awards.
The consensus among the rules attached to those competitions is that the goal will be awarded to B as the last attacker to touch the ball. It makes no difference if it deliberate or not just what attacker last touched the ball.
Indeed if say B made an attempt to play the ball but failed to touch the ball the goal would be awarded to A
So who scores a goal is only important as I said in the context of leading goalscorer competitions, betting, fantasy soccer competitions etc.
So to assist in deciding on goal scorers in questionable circumstances, pro leagues have set up panels to make decisions on goalscorers where there is a doubt. In the English Premier League there is the Dubious Goals Panel. At lower levels referees assign the goalscorer if asked to by a league.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubious_Goals_Committee
If one has a bet that Player X was to score, be the first scorer or whatever it is important in that context that an independent decision is made to eliminate any debate. Once the panels decides that is taken as the final decision.
If for exampme a player is in the running for the top scorer award in a league or competition it is important that if there is a doubt about the scorer that a decision is made by an independent body. Case in point is the Premier League. Harry Kane said that he last touched the ball in a goal against Stoke City last season and as there was doubt about the touch it was not awarded to him. Mo Salah won the top goalscorer award by two goals. If it was won by one the Stoke city goal awarded to Eriksen and not to Kane would have been important.
In the context of the Laws it makes no difference just the final score.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Chanakya,
Who scored a goal is not something that the law concerns itself with, it is only concerned with whether a goal was scored and what the end result of the game was.

Having said that, my understanding is that in most cases where such things are considered, when the last touch on the ball was from a player on the team scoring the goal, the goal is usually credited to that player (no matter whether the touch was intentional or not) not to the one who took the initial shot.

There is no official rule or law about this, however and it is purely up to whichever body is interested in making such a determination, to establish its own guidelines for this.