Question Number: 24889

Law 16 - Goal Kick 5/7/2011

RE: Intermediate Under 12

Phil of Tarzana, CA United States asks...

This question is a follow up to question 24877

I have a follow-up question to the goal kick that didn't leave the penalty area.

Suppose the GK gets off a bad kick & it dribbles toward the 18 yard line. A teammate realizes that the opposing team may get the ball in a good scoring position & so deliberately stops the ball (either with hands or feet) before it passes the 18 yard line.

I know that the restart is a retake of the goal kick, but would the player who stopped the ball be given a YC or just a verbal warning?

If the referee believed that the ball would have traveled beyond the 18 yard line if not stopped, would the caution be for delay of restart or USB or either?

If the referee wasn't sure whether the ball would have traveled beyond the 18 yard line, would there still be a caution & would it be for USB?

Thanks for all the wonderful advice.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

First occurence, just retake the goal kick.

If it is repeated, consider a caution for delaying the restart of play.

At U12, where they might not always have enough strength to kick the ball beyond the penalty area, just retake the kick.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

This will depend on a number of factors:
1. Age/skill level of players
2. score of game
3. time left
4. had the player or any of his teammates done this before during this game and been warned

The restart is a goal kick as you say. If this is U12 rec and the players don't know any better, just a verbal warning.

I this is U19 Select, team taking kick up 1-0 with 2 minutes left, I'm thinking of grabbing my yellow card. That said, when was the last time you saw a U19 player NOT kick a goal kick past the halfway line?

Realistically, this is only going to happen at younger age groups and unless they have been warned previously, no way a caution is going to be issued

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Phil
A caution is not normally required in these situations. However circumstances can contrive to present a situation where a caution may be appropriate. For example a forward is waiting outside the penalty area for the ball to leave the area and a defender dives past him handling the ball to prevent it leaving the penalty area.