Question Number: 15202

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 4/16/2007

RE: Comp Under 19

Ryan of Flower Mound, TX U.S.A. asks...

Dear Asktheref.com,

I have a sceanario I would like to get your opinion on. This is from a competitive U19 boys match.

Team A launches a deep ball toward the Team B's goal. The goalie comes out to claim the ball inside the penalty area while an attacker for Team A also comes to challenge for the ball. The keeper of Team B wins the challenge, sliding and claiming the ball in his handes just before the attacker could reach it. The keeper beat the attacker to the ball by less than one second. In an attempt to avoid contact, the attacker of Team A jumps over the Team B keeper who was sliding under the airborne attacker. On the way down the cleat of Team A's attacker hits the the forehead of Team B's keeper. The keeper was in possesion of the ball when contact was made. Play was stopped for the trainers to check on the keeper who was able to finish the game. There was no blood.
What should the appropriate action for this incident be? Restart with direct kick for Team B? Any misconduct?
Thank you for your responses.

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

The honest answer to this question is "you had to be there". Without being able to see the play we could not give an accurate answer.

That said, based on your description alone it appears that the contact was of an accidental nature. Assuming for the moment that this is true, and the attacker did not do something to deliberately hurt the goalkeeper you most likely would restart play with a dropped ball, as play stopped to treat an injury and of course the goalkeeper is not required to leave the field of play when a trainer is beckoned on.

Now from a practical standpoint, this may not be the simplest way to deal with the situation. If you perform a dropped ball you will want to drop it to the goalkeeper alone - that would be the only truly fair way to return the ball to where it belongs. However, that might get a bit confusing and teammates of the goalkeeper may be expecting some kind of foul. I might suggest even though it was accidental, the referee could punish the attacker for carelessly kicking the goalkeeper, a simple foul, and award the goalkeeper's side a free kick. Certainly, a case could be made for this and it?s doubtful that anyone would protest such a decision. It could even have a diffusing effect letting the goalkeepers teammates know that you saw it and dealt with it.

Of course, if there was any sort of deliberate stomping or reckless action - or if the player engaged in the use of excessive force - then there would certainly be some sort of card coming out of the referee's pocket. However, as I said above, you had to be there.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

If the attacker did evrything in his power to avoid contact and inadvertently cleated the keeper, there can be no foul nor misconduct. Unfortunately, players can be severely injured even when there is no foul. The prescence of blood should not make any difference as to whether a foul should be called.