Question Number: 18016

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 11/27/2007

RE: Select Under 13

Bill Bryant of Seattle, WA USA asks...

One of the great things about refereeing (I'm in my first year) is that you continually see things you hadn't seen while coaching (which I have for 10+ years). This past weekend, I reffed a game where there were TWO situations that I hadn't encountered, both related to handling of the ball by a keeper in the penalty area.

1) Defender is running toward his own goal in possession of the ball with an attacker in pursuit. Defender is trying to evade attacker and is in full control over ball. As defender enters into penalty area, keeper comes out and takes ball off of defenders foot (like he would an attacker on a 1:1 breakaway). I did not make a call as in my view the defender had no intent to "pass" the ball to the keeper but was instead traversing the penalty area, when the keeper decided otherwise. Should I have called an IDFK, on the theory that the defender had full & complete possession and therefore any handling by the keeper would have been "deliberate" on the part of the keeper, if not the defender?

2) Same game. Keeper comes out to top of penalty area to clear a ball but misses. Ball instead goes to a recovering defender who is behind the keeper, and who attempts to clear the ball with a clearance, with the result that the ball goes right to the keeper ahead of him in the air (who has now turned facing the goal), who catches it. I made no call as the score was 4-0 and the game was decided in the final 5 minutes, but I'm still not certain if this was a deliberate handling foul, as the defender clearly had no intent that his keeper was going to catch the ball !

Thanks for your perspectives.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Bill, don't get caught up in the "intent" net. We can never discern what the player intended to do, because we are not mindreaders. We can however always decide based on what we see if something is deliberate or not - it is a fine distinction in a way, but necessary. The purpose of the offense described most often as the deliberate kick to the keeper was to prevent timewasting. In your first scenario, any offense was most likely trifling or doubtful, as the keeper will now have only 6 seconds to get the ball into play - on the other hand, since the defender is trying to evade an attacker, the keeper may have overstepped because taking the ball off of the foot of an approaching defender looks very deliberate and you could safely punish with the IDFK. Only you can decide based on what you saw. With secnario 2, it is still the same decision - was the kick deliberate or not? If the defender is whacking at the ball in an attempt to put it anywhere but his own goal, we can determine it was not a deliberate kick and no punishment is needed, but again - you were there.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Hi Bill and welcome from The Dark Side. These are judgement calls but since you asked for an opinion, here goes. In the first instance I can easily see this as an infraction. The ball HAS been deliberately played by a teammate's foot and there is an attacker present. It's not so much a question of intent as opportunity. He left the ball where the keeper could get it. The second example seems to me to be no infraction as I imagine from what you say an obvious non-intentional kick by the keeper's teammate. Both examples could be trifling. Both could be infractions.