Question Number: 16044

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 7/16/2007

RE: Competitive

Joe of Broomfield, CO United States asks...

Here's a situation I saw while watching a game at a tournament this weekend. I'm a bit confused about the restart, but maybe I'm overlooking something. Clearly this is one of those "you had to have been there" situations, but give it your best shot anyway.

An attacker and a goalkeeper were coming at a ball (sent from midfield) from opposite directions just inside the penalty area. After the ball took a big bounce, the attacker headed it, while at the same time, the keeper was trying to grab it out of the air. The ball was sent over the goal line as a result of the attacker's header. The whistle blew, and the referee moved towards the two players. Pointing first at the keeper, he then raised his forearm and pointed to it. In my mind, he was indicating the keeper had struck the attacker with his forearm while going for the ball. The referee then showed the keeper a yellow card, and play was restarted with a goal kick.

My thinking was the yellow card was issued as a result of a foul, and as such, the restart should have been a penalty kick. For reasons of his own, the referee felt the ball going over the goal line was the cause for play stoppage, and thus restarted with a goal kick.

What could I have missed that allowed a goal kick rather than a penalty kick?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The only reason I can think of for this would be if the ball went out of play prior to the striking "foul". (I say foul in quotes as it wouldn't be a foul because the ball is out of play.) And of course it's the referee's view of things as to what happened first.

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

If the ball left the field and then the contact occurred, then the restart would be a goal kick. It is not a foul unless 4 things are true - 1. On field, 2. Comitted by player, Against opponent, 3. Ball is in play. If the ball was not in play, then its just misconduct.

Answer provided by Referee Nathan Lacy

About the only think I can think of on this one is that the ref felt that the play by the keeper was a reckless challenge in the way he, the keeper, played the ball but that the ref played the advantage to see if the ball was going to go in the net and then cautioned the keeper for the reckless challenge (a delayed yellow). Otherwise, this makes absolutely no sense to me. All the best,

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

All of these answers above are great. Of course there is always a possibility that the referee "chickened out" and decided to punish for the misconduct but not awarded a penalty kick as well. I'm sure we all hope that this was not the case.

My best guess is that the was of the opinion that the ball was on a play before the misconduct occurred. Therefore play was restarted with a goal kick