[ayso45-refs] USSF Advice to Referees: 12.20 BALL KICKED TO THE GOALKEEPER

[Beau James]

Referees,

As promised, here is my summary of the discussions on this topic. The 
discussions included the Wednesday 10/7 coach/referee /Talk-it-out/ 
gathering, as well as several side-channel email threads that included 
senior referees and referee instructors in AYSO section 2 and area A. 
The summary also includes research into guidelines and memoranda issued 
by the USSF National Referee staff.

Before starting, a gentle alert:

    If you are looking for a universal, prescriptive, black-and-white,
    yes/no type of "answer", you're probably not going to find it
    anywhere on this topic. This issue has been discussed and debated in
    referee circles for many years, ever since the revisions to the FIFA
    Laws of the Game and USSF Advice to Referees began in the mid 1990s.
    There still appears to be no universal consensus.

_*In general: referees should recognize this foul.*_

When the ball was last kicked by a teammate of the goalkeeper,  and 
especially when that "last kick" was clear to most/all participants 
(players, referee team, sidelines, goalkeeper), the goalkeeper may not 
use his or her hands to play the ball. This /includes /"passes back to 
the keeper" but is not /limited to /"passes ... to the keeper".

Example:

    A defender collects the ball in the goal area very near the goal
    line. That defender then attempts to clear the ball. The defender's
    kick is weak, the ball is wet and heavy, and the grass is long, so
    the ball rolls out only to the general vicinity of the penalty mark
    (i.e. approximately the 12 yard line). The attacking forwards
    immediately begin running toward the ball.  Can the goalkeeper run
    over and take possession of the ball with his hands (after the kick
    by his teammate, before any attacker plays the ball)?

The current and evolving guidance of the USSF law interpreters and 
referee instructors is "no".  The goalkeeper obviously may attempt to 
/play /such a ball (e.g. may attempt to kick the ball away). But when 
the defender' kick is reasonably deliberate and controlled (not a 
shanked kick or a deflection), and the ball ends up somewhere in the 
penalty area, then the keeper may not use his hands to play this ball. 
If the keeper does use his hands, the keeper has violated law 12; the 
referee should recognize the foul and award an IFK to the attacking team.

*_Don't try to split (too many) hairs_*

    There is a scrum of defenders and attackers who are actively
    competing for the ball. The ball pops out of the melee, then the
    goalkeeper dives down and grabs the ball.

    Are referees expected to use slow-motion instant replay to determine
    that the ball was actually last kicked (deliberately and in a
    controlled manner) by a teammate? And not touched or deflected by an
    attacker before the keeper used his hands to play the ball? And that
    the goalkeeper is also able to make that same determination?

No!

If the referee is able to clearly judge, /and also can expect the 
goalkeeper to be able to judge/, that:

    - the ball was last kicked by a defender
    - the kick which sent the ball to where the keeper is able to play
    the ball was deliberate and controlled

then by all means call the foul.

However, and more likely in this second scenario, the referee would 
judge that the kick was less than fully controlled, or that any law 
violation was doubtful and trifling, and that the players are playing 
within the spirit of the game, clearly not wasting time. Hence, the 
referee would not call a foul.

More comments about "playing in the spirit of the game":

The instructions that accompanied the text changes in the 1997 /Laws of 
the Game/ said (in part): "There is no change to the interpretation, the 
Spirit of the Game remains."

That spirit suggests that unless it is obvious that 
a) the ball was last played by a teammate in a deliberate kick
and
b) the goalkeeper had a reasonable option of playing the ball with the 
foot, 
then no foul should be called. 

_*Age, skill, level of competition adjustments*_

The discussion above presumes at least a moderately sophisticated 
understanding of the laws of the game by the players, in particular by 
the goalkeeper.

The referee community involved in these discussions felt that referees 
should expect AYSO players and keepers at U14, U16, and U19 to already 
possess, or to quickly learn, a sufficiently sophisticated level of 
understanding of this aspect of the law.

However, at U8, U10, often at U12 (and possibly even at U14), 
goalkeepers are typically not yet "position players". The player may 
have been dragooned into the keeper jersey for the first time that very 
morning.  The lack of a suitable level of understanding of the law may 
be assumed or may be immediately obvious to the referee. It is 
appropriate for the referee, in such matches at younger divisions, to 
help the players (especially the keeper) to develop his or her 
understanding of the law. For example, the referee may choose to 
verbally warn the keeper on the first (or first several) occurrences 
("Keeper, you may not pick up the ball when your teammate was the last 
one to kick it to you") and only progress to calling the foul if the 
violation is repeated in spite of such efforts at coaching.

Many referees of youth games, especially in AYSO, enforce this law with 
a verbal warning especially on the first offense and particularly in 
younger divisions.

_*Referee Communication:*_

If it seems appropriate, the referee may signal "no foul" to show 
everyone (players, ARs, sidelines) that he recognized the situation and 
made a decision about how to deal with it.

_*Further reading:*_

For examples of other discussions about the appropriate exercise of 
referee judgement when applying this particular clause of the law., see 
http://asktheref.com threads 20164, 21451, and 21477.

If you want even more, just try a Google search for "pass back to the 
keeper".  ;-)

=========================

Applying these observations and guidelines to the specific scenario that 
Eric described below, the foul / IFK call was exactly correct.

Beau

e.hamilton at comcast.net wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
>  
>
> I won't be able to attend tonight since I'm out of town on a business 
> trip.   This situation came up in a game that I AR'd this past weekend 
> so I'll be interested in understanding the interpretation and 
> application of this part of the advice to referrees, particuarly 
> section b of the Note.
>
>  
>
> Here's what I saw (as I recall it now):
>
>  
>
> * I was positioned near 15-18 alongside the 2nd last defender
>
> * Ball was in play near middle of field width around 25 yards or so 
> from goal.
>
> * Defender was in middle of field around 15 from goal.
>
> * Goalie was around 5-10 yards from goal, also near middle of width 
> (maybe slightly closer to me).
>
> * Ball was kicked along ground towards goal, goalie, and defender.
>
> * Defender was moving forward towards ball and away from goal
>
> * Goalie was charging towards ball.
>
> * When ball and defender were near 18, goalie was around 16 and 
> starting to get low to ball, defender clearly (to me at least) plays 
> the ball toward the keeper with a slight direction change using a 
> textboot inside of the foot pass towards the goalie.
>
> * Bang-bang goalie picks the ball up, looking surprised.
>
> * I raised my flag and CR whistled and awarded IFK.
>
>  
>
> Reading the Advice, I do believe that the defender intentionally 
> played it towards the keeper.  I do not feel that they intended to 
> timewaste-- unless one takes the view that any play back to the goalie 
> is a time waste and that's clearly not the intent of the advice.  I 
> discussed what I saw after the game with other refs (without specific 
> reference to this Advice) and it seems that others would have raised 
> the flag too.
>
>  
>
> So here are the questions I would ask tonight if I were in town:
>
> * If the call is situational and not applicable here because it was 
> bang-bang, where is the threshold at which it becomes a foul?
>
> * Does it ever become a foul if it isn't timewasting?
>
> * What if a player wants to kick it back to the keeper not as a 
> timewasting but because a punt is much stronger?  (That seems wrong too).
>
> * Why is b) a NOTE to Advice, not even in the Advice or rules itself?
>
> * If the foul is only timewasting, should only the CR and not the AR 
> call it?  (assuming CR has asked ARs for help with fouls).
>
>  
>
>  
>
> If someone can summarize the outcome of tonight's discussion, I think 
> it will be helpful to many of us.
>
>  
>
> Eric Hamilton
>
>  
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: AYSO45 at aol.com
> To: ayso45-refs at ayso45.org
> Sent: Saturday, September 26, 2009 10:43:34 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada 
> Pacific
> Subject: [ayso45-refs] USSF Advice to Referees: 12.20 BALL KICKED TO 
> THE GOALKEEPER
>
> The following is taken from the USSF 2007 Advice to Referees. For the 
> complete 79 page document, please visit: 
> http://www.ussoccer.com/Referees/Laws-of-the-Game.aspx 12.20 BALL 
> KICKED TO THE GOALKEEPER A goalkeeper infringes Law 12 if he or she 
> touches the ball with the hands directly after it has been 
> deliberately kicked to him or her by a teammate.  The requirement that 
> the ball be kicked means only that it has been played with the foot.  
> The requirement that the ball be "kicked to" the goalkeeper means only 
> that the play is to or toward a place where the ‘keeper can legally 
> handle the ball.  The requirement that the ball be "deliberately 
> kicked" means that the play on the ball is deliberate and does not 
> include situations in which the ball has been, in the opinion of the 
> referee, accidentally deflected or misdirected. NOTE:  (a) The 
> goalkeeper is permitted to dribble into the penalty area and then pick 
> up any ball played legally (not kicked deliberately to the goalkeeper 
> or to a place where the goalkeeper can easily play it) by a teammate 
> or played in any manner by an opponent. (b) This portion of the Law 
> was written to help referees cope with timewasting tactics by teams, 
> not to punish players who are playing within the Spirit of the Game. 
> We will discuss this on Wednesday night... scott
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