Question Number: 21259

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 5/3/2009

RE: Adult

Chris of groveport, oh usa asks...

This question is a follow up to question 21250

I am sorry that you felt i was yelling but i was not my son left the cap lock on and i did not notice. my follow up question is the player involved was not the in the box and clearly to the outside line area there where other players in the area. The other team had done the same moves and no action was taken. If i understand what you are saying is if the player makes a move for the ball and is caught with their hand on the other player it could be considered holding but not the last since the goalie was clearly in the goal.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

No. That's not at all what I meant to say. You said the referee told you he had cautioned a player for 'holding the last defender' which not only is NOT a cautionable offense, but it's a nonsensical statement. What FIFA has told us is, if there is a blatant hold that breaks up an attack, we should caution for unsporting behavior. The restart HAS to be a direct free kick since you now tell us the hold took place outside of the penalty area. Then I and some other panelists suggested there might have been a denying a goal scoring opportunity since the hold was against the last or next to last defender. You now tell us there were many players inside the penalty area so DOGSO probably doesn't apply. I'm not at all certain what you are referring to when you say 'if a player makes a move for the ball and is caught with their hand on the other player'. If an attacker with or without the ball is held by an opponent, it's the DFK foul of holding. If the keeper is in the goal, and the next to last defender holds an attacker, it could be DOGSO if the attacker is heading with the ball in the direction of the goal with only the next to last defender to beat. That would give him a one on one with the keeper which would possibly be considered a goal scoring opportunity. If this happens then we probably DO have a DOGSO and a red card and send off. What the referee in your question probably called was a blatant or tactical hold which would result in a caution and yellow card but not a send off.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Chris, you did not tell us what the resulting restart was after the issuance of the card, nor were we able to tell the location of that player and others. We tried to cover all of the possibilities.

It appears the referee saw something you and other bystanders did not. It may have appeared to be the same as what had already gone on in the game, but we have no way of knowing for sure, other than the referee clearly didn't think so.

Determining whether a player is being held or not is sometimes easy - more often it is not. We cannot give you a black and white answer because there isn't one. Having a hand on the other player is either something or nothing. It depends on so many factors. When the hand has a fistful of something - jersey, shorts, hair - it is easy. But everything else is a gray area, and you just have to see it in the context of that game, this level, these players, this day.