Question Number: 17720

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 11/6/2007

RE: 12 and Under Adult

Denise Kerby of Town Creek, Alabama USA asks...

The players are concentrated directly in front of the red team's goal. Blue player kicks, red player (not goal keeper) slaps at ball with his hand and makes contact, but ball goes into goal anyway. The one lone referee, during this lightning-quick burst of play, blew his whistle at the deliberate handling of the ball, but the momentum of the ball couldn't have been stopped because it was so fast. The ref then took away the goal point from the blue team and instead awarded them a penalty kick, which they missed. Something about this just doesn't seem quite fair to this soccer mom, but I welcome the chance to learn more about the game. Your opinion, please? Thanks!

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

The referee blew the whistle too quickly ( I think from reading your submission) if the whistle had gone off before the ball had entered the goal, then no goal can be given.

The player who handled the ball must be sent-off and shown the red card. That player's team must play with one fewer player for the rest of the game.

The game is restarted with a penalty kick.

If the referee had waited just a little longer and if he had seen the ball go into the goal before sounding the whistle - he could have allowed the goal and only cautioned and shown a yellow card to the offending defender. A lot of times its best for the referee to wait a moment before stopping play, especially in these sorts of situations.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Well soccer mom you have witnessed a perfect example of why we on this site continually caution referees to avoid a quick whistle inside the penalty area. The instant the referee blew the whistle play was stopped. He foolishly did this before the ball went into the net. Now, he has no choice but to take the ball out of the net, send off the player that deliberately handled the ball and prevented a goal, show the red card and proceed with a penalty kick. What the referee SHOULD have done is keep the whistle in his hand, award the goal and caution the player that deliberately handled the ball to stop a goal.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Whatcha wanna bet that this referee at a U12 game does not have that much experience, and has been getting ongoing "encouragement" from the sidelines to call fouls in a lot of games. So now he sees a clear deliberate handling in the PA, and he's going to prove he's on top of things. "Tweet" - too early as my colleagues have noted.

I had one experienced referee turn to the crowd and say, "Would you give me a second to get the whistle in my mouth?"

When referees are given the time to make their decisions, they will have a better chance to make them correctly.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 17729