Question Number: 18768

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 4/12/2008

RE: Adult

Ramon Arredondo Jr of Oceanside, CA United States asks...

Good day,
Here is my question, this occured during a U14 game. Team A keeper has possession of ball. As Team A keeper is punting the ball, Team A player (his own team) who is a few yards infront of keeper turns around and gets hit by the keepers kicked ball in the forearm (visible direction change of ball) inside the penalty box. The ball rebounds off Team A players arm and directly into their own goal. Team B is awarded the goal.

Is this own goal accurate? The referee stated that he allowed the goal since he gave Team B the "advantage" for the handling of Team A in the penalty box. If the ball had not entered the goal, referee would of called handling on Team A player and awarded a penalty kick to Team B.

Did the referee properly apply advantage in this case? if advantage was properly applied by the ref, is properling the ball with the hand/arm a legal method of scoring in this case? Would this be any different if the keeper was actually performing a restart vice a punt, as in this case? As I understand that no team may score on themselves from a properly completed restart.

Thank you for your assistance in clarifying this.

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

Referee should have just kept his mouth shut. He got the decision right but then offered up some not so great after thoughts.

The keeper punts the ball into the arm of a defender and it goes into the goal, while I'm not there to see it so I can't be sure, I would have to imagine that there is NO WAY this was a deliberate handling offense. Who on god's green earth would want to handle the ball in a way that knocked the ball back toward their own goal, when a successful punt will put his side 40-60 yards closer to the opponents goal... The handling being undeliberate then the goal would stand.

But that isn't what the ref said, so let's think about that. He said he observed a penalty kick offense but applied the advantage. That's fine to do, and the advantage was realized and thus, there would be no reason to come back to the foul. So, even in this case the goal given was the proper decision.

If the referee applied advantage on the handling and within 2-3 seconds that advantage didn't materialize (i.e. going directly out of play.) The referee could theoretically bring the ball back for a penalty. If it took longer than 2-3 seconds, it's not supposed to be called back and then a corner kick would be given. -- However, I will reiterate that I find this scenario very unlikely to be something you would ever deal with as a referee, because I can't imagine how this handling would be deliberate. I mean, come on... perhaps, the ref was saying that to diffuse team A who I suspect were arguing against the goal and for... a penalty kick! How odd, I don't know if team A thought that one all the way through if that is what was going on.

Now on to part 2. You asked what happens if the keeper did this on a restart... well what would happen is that the kick would be taken over again because the ball was touched before it left the penalty area and thus never entered the field of play. Any free kick, or goal kick, starting in the penalty area MUST leave the penalty area to be deemed in play.

Now to clear up another confusion of yours... It's true that no player can score on themselves DIRECTLY from the taking of a free kick, but that would require A. that the ball was in play (it would not be here because it didn't leave the penalty area, and B. that the ball does not touch any other player (it does in this case.) In this scenario, if the ball were properly put into play from a free kick and it hit a teammate and went into the goal it would count. The only way it would not count is if the ball went directly into the goal without being touched by any other player at all.

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Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

While this is a valid goal, virtually everything the referee said was wrong, There was no deliberately handling of the ball here. Clearly this was an inadvertent meeting of ball and arm. Had the referee stopped play and awarded a penalty kick as he stated he would he would have made another error. Also, this was not a restart. While punting the ball the ball is live. Had this been a goal kick or a free kick coming out of the penalty area, the ball is not in play until it leaves the penalty area so if the ball hit a teammate who was inside the penalty area, the kick would be retaken. Finally, a team cannot score on itself DIRECTLY from any restart. If this had been a restart, and the ball bounced off a teammate OUTSIDE the penalty area and into the goal, this would be a valid goal.

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Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

I concur with my colleagues,it is deplorable that a referee can make the correct decision but have no idea why.
Granted it is in the opinion of the referee if it was a foul but nothing you stated suggests that it was a deliberate action on the part of the defender.
The ball simply rebounded off a body part.
It could just have easily been off the back of the head or buttocks.

It is a goal simply because the opposition did not infringe the laws of the game before the ball crossed under the crossbar, between the posts, over the goal line.

On a restart you can not score DIRECTLY on yourself and ANY restart that occurs from inside your own penalty area must first completely LEAVE that area to be in play. If the ball did leave the area and then delfected back into the goal off the free kick or goal kick then the goal would stand.
Cheers

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