Question Number: 16448

Law 10 - Method of Scoring 8/27/2007

RE: Competive High School

Shmuel of JHB, GAUTENG S.A. asks...

If the goalkeeper gets a back pass and realizes that he is unable to pick it up and clears it straight down the ground (Action Soccer with real soccer rules) the ball hits above the post, then hits the back of the goalie and goes in is it an own goal or is is the kickers goal?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

You use the term "back pass" which usually is the short-cut for "touches the ball with his hands after it has been deliberately kicked to him by a team-mate". Since it appears that the ball has been touched both by the goalkeeper and the keeper's teammate, it would be classified as an own goal.

Referees are generally not concerned with compiling statistics. The only one that really counts is the final score. Who scored which goal doesn't matter.

Some leagues have report forms where they want the referee to fill out who scored goals. For an own goal in those game, you have to award the goal to the last player on the attacking team that touched it.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

From this description, I cannot tell what happened, sorry. But, if the ball is in play and bounces off of the goalkeeper into the goal, it will be a goal, and counted as an own goal, most likely for those keeping such stats. If the ball is deliberately kicked to the goalkeeper by a member of his own team (what you incorrectly term a "back pass") and he picks it up with his hands in the penalty area, but drops it and it rolls into the goal, we have an advantage situation, and the goal is awarded instead of the indirect free kick normally given for the GK picking up the ball with his hands from a "back pass". Either way, it is a goal.