Question Number: 18429

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 2/25/2008

RE: Competitive High School

Jim Laydon of Iron Mountain, MI USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 16675

I understand that a Keeper may obtain the ball from an attacker outside his penalty area and dribble to within his penalty area and the handle the ball. What if the ball is intentionally played to the keeper from a teammate, outside his penalty area, he is subsequently pressured by attackers and therefore dribbles into his penalty area. Is he then permitted to handle the ball??

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

How did the teammate play the ball to the goalkeeper? Law 12 says it is a foul (IFK) if the keeper "touches the ball with his hands after it has been deliberately kicked to him by a team-mate." It doesn't say that "deliberately kicked" is forgiven if it occurs outside the penalty area, or if opponents are near by.

Any time a teammate deliberately kicks the ball, the goalkeeper is prohibited from using her hands.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

It depends. If the ball was played to the keeper by a teammate with anything but a kick from the foot, the keeper can legally pick up the ball inside his penalty area. If the ball is played to the keeper with a deliberate kick from the foot, the keeper gets the ball outside the PA, comes under pressure, and then moves back into the PA where he picks up the ball, he is possibly subject to a whistle and an IDFK restart for picking up the ball. A lot will depend on the timing, the pressure and the game situation. Like I said, it depends.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

A keeper has the SPECIAL use of his hands on the ball ONLY inside his own penalty area.

There are only FOUR restrictions of this SPECIAL consideration where a keeper is NOT permitted to use the hands on the ball inside their own penalty area!

In order to understand the limitations your question asks you must grasp the fundamental idea of the four restrictions are not contingent on location. NOTHING in law states that a team mate can not pass a ball to his keeper. The location of where a keeper receives this pass can be ANYWHERE on the field of play. Intentional passes are not a violation deliberate kicks COULD be only if the keeper chooses to use his hands at SOME point.

If you are aware of the four restrictions in law, the ones concerning your query are the last two of the stated four. The first two ALLOWED the ball to handled initially but then prevent a reoccurrence. The LAST two do not allow ANY use of the hands at ANY point.

Indirect Free Kick
An indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a goalkeeper, inside his own penalty area, commits any of the following FOUR offences:

(1) takes more than six seconds while controlling the ball with his hands before releasing it from his possession

(2) touches the ball again with his hands after it has been released from his possession and has not touched any other player

(3) touches the ball with his hands after it has been deliberately kicked to him by a team-mate

(4) touches the ball with his hands after he has received it directly from a throw-in taken by a team-mate

Now a keeper has the right to be anywhere on the field and can even score a goal at the opposing end. Once OUTSIDE his own penalty area he loses any special use of the hands and ANY deliberate handling will ALWAYS be a DFK the same as any other player.
INSIDE his own area any illegal handling is ONLY an INDFK offence it is NEVER ever a PK!

A keeper is permitted to go outside his area and by using his feet or another legal body part except the hands dribble a ball back into his area or inside his area and back out and in and out as often as the opponents will allow it to go unchallenged.
What a referee must be aware of is. HOW did the keeper FIRST come into ball possession? Because if at some point the keeper decides to use his hands on the ball inside his own area we need to remember how that ball first came to be in his possession and what if anything has occurred since that could affect it?

It is permitted to pass the ball to your keeper with any playable body part. A defender will often head or chest a ball into their keeper because if they kicked the ball to their keeper the keeper can not use his hands. NOTE it is NOT an offence to pass the ball to your keeper unless you try to get around the legal restrictions preventing you from deliberately kicking or directly throwing in the ball. Also note the word "deliberate? in the restriction passage, this means any deflections of a ball off the foot do not apply.

Consider these scenarios.
John from the blue team deliberately kicks the ball to Bob his team mate on the blue team. Bill the blue keeper calls out, I got it go wide for me. John leaves that ball that was INTENDED for him, to his keeper . The keeper Bill is now under pressure from a red attacker, Bill farts around dribbling but then reaches down and uses his hands on the ball while inside his area to stop the red player from getting to it.
This is an INDFK offence.
It does not mater that the first blue player John had intended the ball to go to second blue player Bob. The ball was deliberately kicked by the team mate John and it went to Bill the blue keeper .

INTENTIONS are not part of the criteria!

Again take this same situation however a red player is challenging for the ball and Bob recognizes he is in trouble so he stops the ball with his foot and shields the red player away from the ball allowing his keeper Bill to grab that ball with his hands while inside the penalty area.

This is still an INDFK offence.

Now imagine the exact same situation but this time a red player is challenging for the ball much earlier and Bill our keeper sees that Bob might not even get the pass before the red player does so our keeper still inside his area rushes out and uses his hands to knock the ball away just a fraction of a second before the red player gets there.

Technically a referee could see this still as an indfk offence

HOWEVER, while the facts are the same a referee COULD interpret the situation as a SAVE even though technically he touches the ball with his hands after it has been deliberately kicked to him by a team-mate.

Why could we tolerate this use of the hands and not the first two??
Simply when we look at the spirit and letter of the laws a referee has discretion. Keepers are allowed to save the ball from entering their goal as part of the reason they are there. This law restriction was to prevent wasting time and unfairly slowing down the play here it is a muddled rather than clear violation. Here it can be argued this ball was deliberately kicked but it was NEVER to the keeper!
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

We keep getting this question. Perhaps more time at the intro-courses needs to be allotted for this very basic premise.
It matters not WHERE the ball is kicked. If the ball is kicked by a teammate to the keeper anywhere on the field he may not subsequently handle it. Period