Question Number: 33589

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 8/20/2019

RE: Competive Under 15

Denise Volk of Layton, UT UAS asks...

An attacking player is fouled in the penalty area and still scores. What is the correct call. Let goal stand or not count goal and award the penalty kick.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Denise,
The laws require the referee to allow play to continue from an offence when that would benefit the non-offending team more than stopping play. In short - is it better off to allow play to continue or stop play?

Here, allowing play to continue resulted in a goal, while stopping results in a Penalty Kick. So, allowing play to continue is the best outcome - so the goal not only should be allowed, but it MUST be allowed.

Some people might argue that if the referee awards a PK then the player may be sent off (depending on the situation and the offence), so that's a better outcome - but it's not. There's no better outcome than a goal. Referees aren't to think 'well, it'll benefit them by having a player up'. That's too vague.

Now, if the referee had blown the whistle already - even a split second before the ball crossed the line into the completely open goal - then play is dead and the goal cannot be allowed.

Just about every referee has seen the horror of blowing the whistle for a PK just as the attacker somehow slots it through 5 defenders while falling down into the top far corner of the goal - but all we can do is disallow the goal.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Denise
The whole basis of the game is to score goals and to do so within the Laws.
So when a goal is scored that goal should be allowed provided the scoring team has not infringed the Laws. In your example the offence inside the penalty area has not prevented the attacking team from scoring so the referee should allow the advantage and award the goal. The referee can still card the offender if it so merits.
Now there will be times when say the referee is too eager with the whistle to award a foul either a penalty kick or a direct free kick. Just as the whistle sounds or a second after the ball is in the goal. The referee in that instance has no choice but to go with a penalty kick or a free kick depending on the location.
Now there is no guarantee that a penalty kick will be scored. I once had one of these a few seasons ago and I had to disallow the goal as I was too eager with the whistle, send off a defender for a deliberate handling offence to deny a goal and restarted with a penalty kick which was missed. Imagine if the penalty miss was in the last minute to win the game and the referee has chalked off a *goal*
I like to use this video
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bHbySBYK7io
http://www.uefa.com/trainingground/referees/video/videoid=746585.html?autoplay=true
Referee Terge Hague of Norway spoke about that decision he made in the Champions League Final of 2005 between Arsenal and Barcelona.
Referee Hague regrets the decision to this day and say that had he waited a second or two he could have made a better decision of playing advantage and awarding the goal. Barcelona did not score from the free kick and it took them until I believe over 80 minutes in the game to equalise and then go on to win.
So the advice is to play advantage and to always award the goal where possible.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Denise,
Assuming the referee has not already blown the whistle for the foul, the referee should definitely let the goal count.

Since there is no greater advantage than a goal, there is probably no better example of what the advantage rule is designed for. As the wording in the law states, the referee:

''allows play to continue when an offence occurs and the non-offending team will benefit from the advantage.''

It is only if the referee has been a little too hasty and blown the whistle before the ball has crossed the line, that the referee is obliged to award a penalty. As ref Dawson says, to avoid this undesirable outcome, the referee should adopt a 'wait and see' approach in such cases.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Denise if a goal is scored that IS the ADVANTAGE! Even if we might still catution the misconduct of the foul itself, we prefer a goal to a freekick/ PK. The trick here is NOT TO WHISTLE EARLY! A referee does well to stay calm and think possibilities rather than a too quick reaction. If he DOES whistle BEFORE the ball has completely crossed the goal line under the crossbar and between the posts he will indeed have to award the PK and possibly send off the defender for DOG SO. A whistle by the referee definatively ends play . Whereas a wait and see whistle that gives us those neccessary moments to evaluate an advantage, we look very competent. You can tell by the wry smile we are pretty pleased with ourselves when it turns out well lol
Cheers