Question Number: 15181

Law 5 - The Referee 4/14/2007

RE: rec Under 13

david m. dunbar of clermont , fl lake asks...

My player was kicking a goal. A defender was in front of the kick and reached up an put his hand on the ball. It still went in the goal.

? Should the goal count?

Or should you count the hand ball first and give me a penalty shot? (which I might miss?)

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Well coach, which would you rather have? I would assume a goal. The prudent referee would have waited to see if the shot was good before blowing his whistle. If he waited, he should award the goal, caution the defender for unsporting behavior and restart with a kick off. If the referee foolishly blew his whistle before the shot was finished, he must stop play, award a pk and send off the defender for denying a goal or goal scoringing opportunity by deliberately handling the ball.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Coach you must look at the experience level of the referees who are usually assigned to your level of play, new and inexperienced or old with no ability beyond your level because their experience is all at the lowest levels and they have never attended refresher training. These referees will probably blow every time the ball hits a hand or arm. Those same referees will usually "forget" to send-off a player who denies this goal. So there you stand 11 against 11 instead of against 10 and taking a penalty you might miss...

The experienced and knowledgeable referee will recognize an advantage to the ball flying into the net and allow it. Presto a goal for your side and a defender playing on a caution and playing a bit more careful. This is an advantage to your attack.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

The referee should try to wait, if the ball goes in allow the goal and yellow card the defender.

If it's a miss then a red card is in order, with the penalty kick.

Just be sure you understand that you might not always get this, but you should.

Answer provided by Referee Nathan Lacy

I'm reminded of an adage I heard many years ago as applies to soccer reffing - "don't just do something, stand there." The inference here is that rather than making the immediate call that we, as refs, wait a second or two to see if an advantage might develop. As Ref Fleischer clearly points out the more experienced refs will/should implement this approach more consistently whereas the younger/more inexperienced refs will probably "jump" on the whistle and miss potentially excellent opportunities to apply advantage. In this case, by waiting, the ref allows the results of the actions (i.e. handling) to clearly become manifest and as stated above - if it goes in the goal award the goal, caution and restart with the kickoff and if it does not award the red card and the PK. And as a final thought, even the best refs will miss an advantage once in a while because of failure to see someone who might have been screened from their vision or whatever. All the best,