Question Number: 16048

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 7/16/2007

RE: Select

David Pham of Houston, TX USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 16010

What about putting a hand up to protect your face from a hard struck ball? Sometimes I just can't duck fast enough. Sometimes I try to duck but bad vision and bad estimation of the flight of the ball put my face in danger. [16010]

Answer provided by Referee Jon Sommer

A subconscious reaction isn't a deliberate hand ball. If you think before the ball is kicked, 'I am going to protect my face with my hand here' that is deliberately handling the ball. If you can get your hand in the way in time, why not get your face out the way...or better still, use your forehead and head the ball.

Regards

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

If the reaction time is short, I will not call a player for protecting their face. If they had sufficient time to reach and move or play the ball differently, then I will. If I threw a ball at you quickly, you would subconsciously throw your hands in the air to protect your face. We cannot penalize a player for doing this.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

What I like to look for in a situation like this is to see if the player flinches. Perhaps the ball comes from a direction he isn't expecting, he suddenly sees it in his peripheral vision, and as he ducks away (the flinch) he brings his arm up to protect himself. No foul if I see that - provided of course that he doesn't bat the ball down but it just bounces off his arm.

As my colleagues have said, if you have time to plan to move your arm or hand in front of your face, you have time to figure out a better way to play the ball.

The call or non-call will all depend on what I see happen out there.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

David, the Laws of the Game were NOT published to punish soccer players from protecting themselves. If your action is reflexive and you do not redirect the ball, then you have not deliberately handled the ball. You don't say how old you are. What we will allow as protection varies with age and skill level. I don't recall ever seeing a professional player move his hand to protect himself. We would expect a player of that skill level to be able to avoid or head the ball. Not so a U14 Select player and certainly not a Rec level player. Again, reaction time is important. I would add this caveat, there are referees that upon seeing ball and hand meet they will blow the whistle. You'll know this usually within 15 minutes or so. If that's the case, by all means you should protect yourself but do not be surprised at a whistle and do not argue with the referee.