Question Number: 14770

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 1/31/2007

RE: Competitive Adult

Bryan Mintenko of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada asks...

If the ball goes into the penalty area, and a defender places his/her foot on the top of the ball, and the goalkeeper picks it up with his/her hands, is that considered to be an intentional pass to the goalkeeper?

If the defender places his/her foot on the top of the ball to stop it from rolling, then leaves the ball and the keeper picks it up, is that an intentional pass?

Thanks.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

If the ball goes into the penalty area and a teammate of the keeper stops it with his foot and leaves it for his keeper, the keeper may not handle it. If the ball is stopped already, whay would the player put his foot on it. But if that DID occur, I would have a hard time saying the teammate of the keeper had KICKED OR PLAYED the ball with his foot if he did not move it.

Answer provided by Referee Nathan Lacy

There are three criteria to be met in this situation - foot, intentional, hand. The foot plays the ball intentionally which is then picked up with the hands by the keeper. With these criteria being met an IFK is awarded at the location of where the keeper played the ball with their hands. Using the work "kicked" just confuses the issue and you should consider that if the ball has been played with the foot then it has been "kicked." All the best,

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Bryan,
In truth we batted this around a bit before settling on if the foot controls the ball then kicked and played have the same meaning. One could claim that by putting the foot in the path of the ball, the foot struck the ball (which is the dictionary definition of a 'kick').
In both your situations an INDFK for deliberately kicking the ball to the keeper by the teammate. We can postulate a keeper and defender arriving at the same time to stop a ball it could be considered as inadvertant contact if an immediate save was in progress and no need to award an INDFK out. But if the defender shields the ball or lifts his foot off and leaves it for the keeper or the keeper takes it from under his foot with no reason to make a save it follows the logic of why the deliberate foot pass by a teammate to a keeper was outlawed in the first place and we award an INDFK to the keeper for forgetting it! Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

I would say the following, the player playing the ball with his foot has, in fact, "kicked" it and the goalkeeper who uses his hands in this case must be sanctioned for his error. There are referees who will argue the point and referees who will not have to courage to give the sanction, that's why we get the big bucks -- AND this is a different story from the ball not in play being tapped and moved a minuscule amount. This is not a kick and moves situation, it is a plays the ball with the foot and leaves it where the keeper may use his hands thing.

No, this is a violation of Law 12 and we pull up the keeper. The USSF has written a paper on the subject. The paper is so old that it has difficult to find. For your purposes Bryan, I'll be willing to wager there is no shaky ground at all. Give the free kick and be done with it for the remainder of the match.

Regards,