Question Number: 24515

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 1/23/2011

RE: Adult

Chris Alden of Fleet, Hants England asks...

A player deliberately handles the ball giving away a penalty. The ref awards the penalty. The penalty is then taken, after the pen is scored the ref then sends off the offending player. Is this allowed?

I approached the ref after the game and said that if the pen had been saved and the offending player won the ball went up the other end and scored would it be allowed, he said yes and then followed up by saying the player would then have been sent off!!!!!

Please can you clarify this for me

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Assuming that the red card was for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity by the handling foul, the player should have been sent off and shown the red card BEFORE the penalty kick was taken. After the penalty kick, it is too late for the referee to change a decision (penalty kick only) and sendoff the player.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Chris
The player must be sent off before the penalty kick if he denied an obvious goal or goal scoring opportunity. The referee cannot send the player off after the penalty kick for that offence.
However let's say that the player, that committed the foul, used offensive, insulting and abusive langauge to the referee after the penalty was scored then he would be dismissed for that before the kick off is taken.
It is also possible to send a player off after play has restarted in the case of unseen violent conduct that has been brought to the attention of the referee. That is the one exception in the Laws.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Once the penalty kick has been taken (that is to say the game has been restarted) the referee may not send the player off. As to the second part; as weird as that sounds, the referee is correct as long as he doesn't stop play. Only an extremely foolish referee would not stop play and even more foolish to wait until a goal for opposing team would score but theoretically, he doesn't have to punish the misconduct until play stops. Other than what Ref McHugh refers to, misconduct can't be punished once play restarts.

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