Question Number: 29852

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 10/25/2015

RE: Select Under 9

Mark Pinkel of Hollywood, MD US asks...

There was a direct kick given just outside the penalty box (roughly 11 yards from the goal line). The ref walked my team back 10 yards so my teams wall was essentiallly on the goaline. When the other team took their shot one of my players put their hands up and it bounced off their hands and into the goal. Should the goal count or should there have been a penalty kick awarded?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Mark
The best decision is to play advantage and award the goal. The decision then removes the need for a debate whether the handling was deliberate or not and also in older age groups removes the need to dismiss the player for denying a goal.
Also there is no certainty that a goal will be scored from the resulting penalty kick should the referee be too quick on the whistle to award the penalty kick.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Mark,
the best decision here is to award the goal, possibly caution show a yellow card or at this age perhaps and warn and substitute the player for a while to contemplate their action for their unsuccessful attempt to deny the goal as USB! If you stop play BEFORE the ball has completely entered the goal, over the goal line, under the crossbar and between the posts with a too early whistle the only recourse is to award the PK and send the player off . At least at the 11 aside adult matches. Again if cards are not used ,some sort of sit out or time out and warning to the youth should occur. As my colleague states NOT all PKs are converted. Look at the WC when the cheating deliberate handling by Suarez from Uruguay. defeated Ghana at the WC 2010 when they missed the following PK. Suarez could be seen celebrating in the tunnels when he realized his actions, as despicable as they were, made it possible for his team to advance.
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Mark,

Advantage should always be played if there's more benefit to allowing play to continue than there is in stopping play. Naturally there's no better outcome than a goal, so this is the most perfect case of advantage you could see.

Out of interest, even if it had been an indirect free kick and no other player touched it, the deliberate handling would count as the touch and the goal would be awarded.