Question Number: 15498

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 5/16/2007

RE: Select Under 12

Coach Rob of Jackson, MI USA asks...

A player was dribbling into the goal box when taken down from behind. the ball traveled to a teammate and the ref allowed the play to proceed since there was no loss of advantage. the teammate took a shot and missed, the ref then called a penalty kick for the take down of the other player.

Is that a fair call, or since advantage was retained and the play was allowed to continue, does the penalty get waived off?

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Ahhh Coach, a loaded question! Personally, I'd go by the directive we have from US Soccer which says that "advantage" should not be viewed as being the same as a goal. The fact that the shot was taken, in my mind, says the advantage was realised. But... I wasn't there, perhaps the shot was not a clean one. The referee at the field decided the advantage was not realised and it's within Law for him to bring play back and award a penalty kick. This points out the perils of giving advantage inside the penalty area.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Playing advantage is a lot of guess work on the referee's part. He guesses that it is an advantage to let things run, he guesses what the advantage will be and he waits 2-3 seconds to see if what he thought happens. If the ball leaves the field he can't come back to the original foul. If you stop play because the advantage is not realised you better do so before the ball leaves the park -- remember the referee could have stopped play in his head and fumbled with the whistle and not gotten his stoppage of play to you until the ball was in Ohio.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

As a referee I am personally reluctant to allow advantage when a foul occurs that will result in a penalty kick. Unless I think there is a better than 90% chance that a goal is about to be scored I won't even consider it.

Why is that, you ask. That is because to me there isn't a much bigger scoring advantage in football to score than a free kick from 12 yards with only the goalkeeper to beat.

However, if advantage is given and a teammate realizes that advantage and takes a shot and misses - I don't see any reason to give that team "a second bite at the apple" - certainly they've missed their chance and the referee shouldn't be helping them make up for their mistakes as players.