Question Number: 30288

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 4/14/2016

RE: Select Under 16

Alain of Victoria, BC Canada asks...

Hypothetical situation (similar to a real situation a few years ago when coaching). Keeper is running outside the PA and punch the ball with his hands. Attacker with no defenders near him is late to get to the ball and knocks down the keeper with excessive force (doesn't slow down, all eyes on the ball and DOGSO). I have two red cards and a DFK for the attacking team outside the PA. Is this correct?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Alain
These situations acan be fraught with difficulty and it can be a matter of opinion as to who gets to the ball first or the manner in which the challenge is made and or the location of the incident. Referee Dawson point to the infamous challenge between Neuer and Higuain in the 2014 WC as an example
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr4GMG_lYu4
The referee awarded Germany a free kick for the incident. Now in my opinion it should have been a free kick to Argentina and a probable caution for the goalkeeper. The attacker was certainly not guilty of any offence.
Here is one where the referee gets it entirely correct
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqY8CI0ha8o
Red card for the attacker for serious foul play.
In respect of your description it is certainly a foul for deliberate handling by the GK outside the penalty area which then makes it a very likely DOGSO (Denying an Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity) with the GK sent off? The attacker can also be guilty of a sending off offence in the challenge for the ball in this circumstance for the use of excessive force yet the first offence is the handling by the GK which is the restart, provided of course the ball was in fact see to be handled outside the PA.
Timing can be a split second apart and the referee can get the timing assessment wrong at speed. Without seeing them it is impossible to comment.

Answer provided by Referee James Sowa

Alain,

This would depend on whether the referee determined that the contact by the attacker was endangering the safety of an opponent or if the attacker even committed an offense. It is also very possible that the keeper jumped into the attacker in these scenarios.

For the sake of your scenario, let's assume that the referee has determined that the attacker did endanger the safety of the goalkeeper. Since the initial handling was the action which stopped play, the restart would be a direct free kick. Since the referee determined this was an OGSO, the keeper would be sent off and shown the red card. Since the referee also determined that the attacker committed a send off offense, the attacker would be sent off for Violent Conduct (since the ball is out of play).

As referee McHugh points out, this is very difficult to assess and requires someone to actually see the play.