Question Number: 35828

Law 9 - The Ball in and out of Play 12/4/2024

Crebs Crem of Zagreb, Croatia asks...

Hello,

This question is about disallowed penalty given because of an off-the-ball challenge.

Say, there is an off-the-ball challenge between players A5 and B5 in the penalty area of team B. At that time, the ball is being played in midfield. In the challenge, player A5 trips onto his/her own foot and falls down. Since the ball is played in midfield, the referee is far from players A5 and B5 and therefore incorrectly calls a penalty kick for team A. Then, VAR intervenes, the referee sees the incident on the monitor and decides it is no offence. At this point, where should the referee drop the ball, in midfield or in the penalty area where the off-the-ball challenge took place?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Crebs. Merry Christmas
any DB inside the PA would go to the keeper residing there. The referee stops play and awards a PK for something that did not require him to stop which VAR review clearly shows then the DB should be where the ball was at the time of the stoppage, awarded to the team that had possession when the stoppage occurred!
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Crebs
Thanks for the question.

Law 9 tells us that the ball is dropped for the defending team goalkeeper in their penalty area if, when play was stopped, the ball was in the penalty area or the last touch of the ball was in the penalty area.  
In all other cases, the referee drops the ball for one player of the team that last touched the ball at the position where it last touched a player, an outside agent or, as outlined in Law 9.1, a match official.

So there you have it. The ball was in the penalty area was play was stopped which was to award a penalty kick and as there could not be a penalty kick restart due to an overturned decision either by VAR or an assistants advice the dropped ball has to be in the penalty area to the goalkeeper.

Some see it as an unfair yet many referees if unsure with VAR will adopt a wait and see approach and then stop play. Stopping play just before a goal is scored to award a penalty kick which gets overturned will be seen as a very poor call.
Its why we see late flags and referee calls in these attacking situations until the ball is cleared away or it goes to an opponent or out of play.
In those instances nothing has been denied by an erroneous decision.