Question Number: 34740

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 10/16/2022

RE: Red Under 10

Roger Schnurr of Valencia, CA United States asks...

This situation occurred in a match last week: Keeper collected the ball in the penalty area and then punted the ball in the penalty area. The ball went straight up, came down and bounced in the penalty area. While still in the penalty area the Keeper swatted the ball forward on the bounce. What is the penalty? Would the penalty be any different if the Keeper actually handled instead of swatted the ball on the bounce in the penalty area?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Roger
short answer there is NO penalty because there was no justification for it! The goalkeeper had clearly kicked or attempted to kick the ball to release it into play it was not a trick to waste time!
In my opinion the swatting it away is even less chance of being seen as inappropriate as a catch might be viewed as suspicious, if it was held for any length of time.

LAW 12 QUOTE
An indirect free kick is awarded if a goalkeeper, inside their penalty area, touches the ball with the hand/arm, UNLESS the goalkeeper has clearly kicked or attempted to kick the ball to release it into play

Only if this touch occurred OUTSIDE the PA could a DFK be awarded a card might be in the mix! The goalkeeper has the same restrictions on handling the ball as any other player outside the penalty area. If the goalkeeper handles the ball inside their penalty area when not permitted to do so, an indirect free kick is awarded but there is no disciplinary sanction.

However, if the offence is playing the ball a second time (with or without the hand/arm) after a restart before it touches another player, the goalkeeper must be sanctioned if the offence stops a promising attack or denies an opponent or the opposing team a goal or an
obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

The LOTG are meant to keep the game fair & moving forward in an entertaining and fun environment.

They are tweaked, altered, changed and even deleted when it becomes apparent the implementation or wording is creating more issues than it solved.

WE, meaning the refereeing officials, try to avoid "gotcha calls" where a players indecision creates a dilemma where a foul or free kick might be called, on a trial or doubtful or in the performance of their regular playing function.

Here is this case a KEEPER is in charge of defending his goal and although he does have some handling restrictions imposed on him for certain reasons by in large, he is allowed to use his hands on the ball in the performance of his duties inside his PA.

Upon making a save & acquiring the ball a keeper is awarded a certain time frame (what is referred to as the 6 second rule) 6 seconds to control the ball within his hands and in that window NO opponent is permitted to interfere until after the keeper has released the ball voluntarily back into active play.

Now there is a handling restriction in place, which is the reason for your question, because it does state in the LOTG that once the keeper has released the ball (thrown or kicked,) they are NOT permitted to (touch the ball a 2nd time with their hands) they can still play that ball with any other legal body part just not the hands., until one of the other 21 players has also had a touch on that ball be it a team mate an opponent. So the restart for the infraction is an INDFK from the point where this 2nd touch occurs.

An indirect free kick is awarded if a goalkeeper, inside their penalty area,
commits any of the following offences:
• controls the ball with the hand/arm for more than six seconds before releasing it
• touches the ball with the hand/arm after releasing it before it has touched another player
• touches the ball with the hand/arm after it has been deliberately kicked to the goalkeeper by a team-mate
• touches the ball with the hand/arm after receiving it directly from a throw-in taken by a team-mate

However, it was also realized the handling restriction had more to do with wasting time not trying to find a way to award a free kick when a mistake or poorly released ball is entering the goal or make a keeper afraid of a giving up a free kick or stopping a promising attack or DOGSO.

Where it becomes Dicey is if it was adequately released and an unobservant defender was too slow or slipped and an opponent started in keeper rushing out to stop gets there with hand first . Well, we tend not to award free kicks from nothing, but neither should we reward a mistake of tactical inefficiency!
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Roger
Thanks for the question.
First off a goalkeeper CANNOT be punished ever for deliberate handling inside their own penalty area. I emphasized cannot as the key role of the GK is the use of hands inside the penalty area. Outside the penalty area the goalkeeper is like any outfield player so DHB can be committed by a GK.

The misnomer *back-pass* rule, as direction of the kick is irrelevant plus it can happen from a team’s own throw, was introduced in 1992 to discourage time-wasting and unduly defensive play after the 1990 World Cup was described as exceedingly dull, rife with back-passing and goalkeepers picking up the ball from deliberate kicks to them by team mates to waste time.
As a result goalkeepers can be punished by an indirect free kick for touching the ball with the hand/s from a deliberate kick or throw in from a team mate or after throwing the ball down and then picking it up again without it being touched by an opponent. The law makers were keen not to change the fundamental role of the GK which is use of the hands inside the goal area while at the same time preventing teams from not having tne ball available for challenge by getting it into the GKs hands

IFAB subsequently amended this law to allow goalkeepers to pick up a mis-kicked clearance by the goalkeeper . This was in response to situations where on a deliberate kick or throw in to the goalkeeper from a team mate the goalkeeper mis-kicked the ball so the following wording was introduced to say that the offence **should only be punished unless the goalkeeper has clearly kicked or attempted to kick the ball to release it into play**

So in your example the goalkeeper clearly released the ball into play and therefore the restriction of using hands on the ball inside the penalty area was no longer present so there was no offence either in swatting the ball away or grabbing the ball inside the area.