Question Number: 15022

Law 10 - Method of Scoring 3/21/2007

RE: AYSO rec Under 17

Cameron of Plamdale, CA USA asks...

1. Red shoots, Blue GK stops ball on goal line. Ref mistakenly awards goal but before restart defers to AR who says no goal. Should restart be a GK kick as he had possession of the ball or a dropped ball at the top of the goal box to be contested by Red and Blue players or a dropped ball to the GK?

2. Red shoots and a goal is scored and Ref awards goal but before restart the ref is told by the AR that a Red player had violently kicked a Blue player at mid field BEFORE the shot on goal was taken. Is the goal awarded and the violent Red player ejected? Or is the goal disallowed and the violent player ejected as the act occurred while the ball was in play? As the offending Red player was far away and did not deny any of the opponents opportunities to stop the shot into goal should not the goal be awarded and the offending Red ejected?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

The timing of when the events occur and then when they are known is crucial. In your senarios since no restart has yet occured new information by the AR to the referee can change any outcome that may have been 1st thought as correct.

While we can poke holes at the mechanics of a referee who awards a goal then changes his mind based on AR input if the restart of Kick off has not occurred the referee can still change his mind and as an inadvertant whistle the restart is in fact a dropped ball. Generally in the interest of respect and fair play the drop could go uncontested!
The referee could drop the ball soley to the keeper but cannot prevent an opponent from challenging if that opponent wanted to participate.

In your second situation we have violent misconduct away from play that also qualifies as a penal foul of kicking as it occurs ON the field while the ball was IN play. If the referee accepts the AR input that the DFK foul of kicking by the blue player occured BEFORE the goal was scored, the goal would NOT be awarded and a DFK restart from the spot of the kicking foul. Red card shown to offender he is sent off and they play a man down plus no goal, the coach is not going to be pleased at that player.

If the misconduct was trivial as in our recent you call it we can as you point out choose to see no impact on the outcome of the goal. In this case a FOUL of such magnitude cannot be ignored!

The team scoring the goal has violated law 10
~Goal Scored
A goal is scored when the whole of the ball passes over the goal line, between the goalposts and under the crossbar,
PROVIDED
that no infringement of the Laws of the Game has been committed previously by the team scoring the goal.
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

In case 2 we can not award a goal because, without the referee's knowledge, play had stopped when his assistant observed kicking an opponent, using excessive force, had occurred away from play. Once the referee is made aware of the event he must act in one of three ways: play advantage, stop play, ignore the information [wave off the flag].

Advantage is impossible because play had stopped with the supposed goal. Stopping play is impossible, for the same reason, Ignoring the information is impossible as well, for obvious reasons. So the referee must look to the Law for a solution. Law 10 is very clear on the matter, there can be no goal, the Laws of the Game were infringed by the side scoring the goal and that stopped play BEFORE the supposed goal.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

1. Referee stopped play. He then changes his mind as to the goal, Restart is a dropped ball at the top of the 6 but I would quickly drop it to the keeper in the interests of fair play. 2. no goal. Scoring team infringed the LOTG BEFORE the goal was scored

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 16185