[ayso45-refs] Question on handling (AYSO)

[Bob Henderson]

Your decision and action was correct under the Laws of the Game (LOTG).  See
comments interspersed...   I am copying the reply to coaches as well as the
referees to promote understanding of the Laws.
 
 Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 11:52 PM
To: bob at starshippilot.com
Subject: Question on handling



Hi Bob,

 

 ...  a situation came up in my U10 game on Saturday that I wanted to ask
your opinion on.

 

After making a save, the goaltender was running while holding the ball,
intending to put it in play, but he mistakenly ran well past the penalty
area line (3+ yards and still running) without releasing the ball.  What do
we do? 

 

In a U10 match, if the Keeper had barely crossed the line,  I might have let
it go with a word of advice to the Keeper about watching the line.  But 3+
yards is a bit much. 

 

My assessment was that this constituted handling, and I blew the whistle to
award the other team a direct free kick from the spot of the infraction,
just outside the penalty area. An attacking player arrived on the scene
within a few seconds and blasted the ball into the goal before the defending
team had a chance to set up any kind of wall. After a conference with my
ARs, I allowed the goal to stand, but I heard several objections. The
objections were: 

 

 Correct call.   The Goalkeepers use of hands is only allowed when the ball
is in the Penalty Area (and remember, the line is part of the Area).

 

1) It should have been an indirect free kick, not a DFK, because the
handling was inadvertent. My view on this is that this is not the same as a
ball accidentally hitting someone's hand. The goalie was deliberately
handling the ball. Inadvertently going over the line doesn't enter into it.
(And in any case, inadvertent handling would have been no foul at all, as
opposed to an IFK.) My ruling: Deliberate handling and therefore DFK. 

 

You were correct.  Deliberate Handling is a foul punished by a DFK.   Please
no one ever water down the a DFK foul by thinking "it wasn't so bad or
wasn't intentional, so I will just award an IFK instead.").  If the
ball-hand contact was not the result of action by the GK,  it wouldn't have
been a foul at all.  Clearly in this case the handling has to be considered
"deliberate".

 

2) It should have been an IFK because it was a goaltender limitation
violation, not handling by another player. I considered this but decided
this was handling, not a goaltender limitation. 

 

Correct, outside of the Penalty Area,  the Keeper has no special privileges
and is subject to the same limitations as the other players.  It is true,
that a Keeper can never be called for Deliberate Handling when the ball is
in his/her own Penalty Area (and a DFK awarded to the other team because of
it).  The violations by the Keeper evolving "hands" such as (1) second
touch, (2) handling a ball directly from a throw-in by a teammate, (3)
handling a  ball deliberately kicked by a teammate, and (4) taking more than
6 seconds to return the ball into play are IFK.   Handling the ball outside
of the Area isn't one of those four. 

 

3) The defending team should have been allowed a chance to set up a wall
before the kick. Because I considered this to be an infraction outside the
penalty area, I considered it to be a normal DFK, not a penalty kick, and I
didn't see why the offense shouldn't put it in play as soon as they were
ready. 

 

 A team which commits a foul has no rights.   The team awarded the free kick
can take it at any time (unless they request the Referee intervene to
enforce the distance by the defenders.   

 

Now in a U10 match I would likely make sure the Keeper has recovered close
to his/her position in front of the goal before allowing the kick, (perhaps
by standing the way).  The LOTG states there has to be a keeper, though it
doesn't say they have to be in position,  but with a U10 player who likely
hasn't player keeper before,  I am willing to bend the meaning of that
requirement a bit.   I'm sure others will disagree with that. :-)

 

Any thoughts? This was the tying goal late in the game, and it made me
fairly unpopular with one of the teams.

 

You made the right call,  good job!  

 

While the Keeper likely made the mistake out inexperience and the excitement
of the moment and one of the Referees job at U10 and below is to teach the
Laws,  this keeper and the other players learned a lesson,  perhaps the hard
way, but learned.  While we would all like to have our calls so clearly
correct that no one can disagree with them, the fact is that half of the
spectators will likely disagree with any call made.  They are biased after
all as they should be as parents.

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