Question Number: 16011

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 7/12/2007

RE: Rec Adult

Jason Carter of Orange Park, FL USA asks...

When can the goalie pick up the ball? I know that if a player on the same team kicks the ball intentionally to the goalie that he cannot pick up the ball. If a player heads it or does a throw in to their goalie....can he pick it up?

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Paragraph 12.20 and 12.21 of Advice to Referees WILL explain this in no uncertain terms when it is published in the fall. I am not permitted to quote exactly how it will read because it is, as yet an unpublished, copyrighted document. Suffice to say it will read sort of like this:

The goalkeeper may always handle the ball inside his own penalty area unless he:

* Takes more than 6 seconds while controlling the ball with his/her hands before releasing it from possession

* Regains hand control prior to a touch by another player

* Touches ball with the hands after it comes directly from a throw-in or deliberate kick to the goalkeeper by a teammate

The restart for any of these infringements is an indirect free kick*.

I offer this sort of quote because that is what I wrote to the committee revising ATR and until the date it is published it remains my intellectual property.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Jason, this should have been covered in your certification course. If a teammate of the keeper kicks the ball with his foot to the keeper, to a place where the keeper can collect it, or uses his feet to stop a ball and leave it for the keeper, the keeper may not handle the ball legally. Any other part of the anatomy that is legal may be used and the keeper may handle the ball inside the penalty area. However, if a teammate tries to circumvent the Law by kicking the ball up to his head and then heading the ball to his keeper, the temmate is cautioned and shown the yellow card whether or not the keeper subsequently handles the ball. A keeper also may not legally handle the ball inside his own penalty area if he receives a ball thrown-in by a teammate before it has touched another player.