Question Number: 30203

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 3/18/2016

RE: Youth to adult, comp and rec.

Barry Stewart of Chilliwack, BC Canada asks...

This question is a follow up to question 30197

Thanks, Joe.

On the shoulder to chest challenge: is it deemed an unfair/unsafe challenge because of the good chance of it leading to head-to-head or shoulder-to-head contact?

Regarding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OzBMZnZl7g, I can see the aggrieved team and their fans being shocked by the hard fall the attacker took - but when contact happened, she was standing on her inside foot, so was easily toppled over. Had she been on her outside foot (as the defender was), she would likely have stood up to the contact.

Still, I can see it going either way. The defender could have been more careful, especially in the PA.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Barry
The reason is that, rather than a danger of head contact alone, a shoulder into back / chest does also pose a danger to the player in its own right such as a bony hard shoulder into ribs or spine plus the risk of whiplash injuries. It is just too much of a risk and likely to cause a hurt to bones, ligaments, muscles etc. It is also unwarranted physical contact as one has to just watch these type of contacts to see that they are just body hits rather than an attempt to challenge for space around the ball.
Research has shown that making a charge appears to be relatively low risk compared with receiving one, because it is planned by the player doing the charging and it is using a hard part of the body against a soft part. One just has to witness the unfair shoulder contact on players to know the risk that poses. Also when the contact is into the back the player may not expect the contact and be able to brace for it while into the chest is a vulnerable location for contact.
Even sports that allowed front shoulder charging such as rugby league have now banned it. The code had cited that player safety is a fundamental principle and the latest research and current trends show that the shoulder charge has the potential to create an unacceptable risk of injury for its players. The code researched something like 14,000 regular tackles made and found that there was an overall injury rate of 0.1 per cent yet in the same research 42 shoulder charges resulted in an injury rate of 7 per cent. Their research showed that G forces were getting close to double and that there were whiplash effects contributed to serious injury and in some instances death!
Soccer has long recognised the danger of charging by restricting what is now acceptable. At one time strong physical charging was allowed which included charging goalkeepers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce-RMQy3eK4&t=6m50s
In this video this incident was seen as a fair charge which resulted in the goalkeeper being injured and at a time before subs United played with 10 players with an outfield player going into goal. The law was subsequently amended to close to what we have now.