Question Number: 34660

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 8/10/2022

RE: Rec Adult

Doug of Folsom, CA US asks...

Arm is horizontal for an illegal activity not called and the ball hits the defender arm in the PA.
Hello there - in a recent over 35 mens rec game I was reffing w the dual system. 6-7 defenders and attackers were pressed together w the ball, 15-18 yards in front of goal.
I could tell there was a lot of pushing and holding but but I couldn’t see much to call anything, as the bodies blocked visibility.
Then players moved around and I saw a defender closer to me holding off an attacker that had the ball at his feet. The defender had his arm stretched out fully horizontal pressing against the attackers chest.
I thought it would be unfair to call that when I had just ignored 5 plus similar actions in the prior 5 seconds.
Then the ball came up and hit the outstretched arm of the defender. It was not a self deflection. I think the attacker was trying to flick the ball over both of them.
The defender did not move the arm to the ball, but as he had deliberately raised his arm, caused the ball contact.
I awarded the PK for handling.

Question- if I decided I was not going to call the holding foul was I right to still regard the activity of holding your arm horizontally against a player as not a part of soccer and therefore an unnatural position? Or, since I allowed the holding activity, was the horizontal arm a natural position for soccer in this situation?
I am tempted to call it the same way next time.

I think I will start trying to get ahead of the offside position in these situations, maybe to the corner of the PA next to the goal line, so I can see more of the crap at the top of the PA.
Thanks as always! /Doug

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Doug
Thanks for the question.
The Law book tells us that a player’s hand/arm position should be judged in relation to their body movement in that particular situation plus a player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised .

So there you have it. The defender had no business having an arm outstretched and raised in a position that was unjustifiable in a playing context so the penalty kick was probably the correct call.

As to positioning the key for me is angle of view which does not necessarily need to be ahead of the offside line. I referee a lot on my own as a single referee and I will get most clear offsides from short of the defensive line provided I have a good angle of view. The Dual System recommends ahead of the defensive line yet that is also to assist in goal line calls etc.
The key is to see the contact area between players which is best seen side on rather than from behind or in front of the challenge. That is a blind spot whereas if a referee can see daylight between players before any contact that position will give an optimum viewing angle. What you see depends not only on what you look at but also where you look from.

In the recent Premier League game between Man Utd and Brighton I saw what in my opinion was a clear push in the back by Martinez a Utd player inside the penalty area in the first half when Brighton was leading 0-2. It was not given even with VAR.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2zgWo5IF6Wk
From your post my opinion is that you are seeing the contacts clearly yet may be not calling them as offences due to perhaps the level and type of contact much like the Utd no call penalty decision. It was a clear push yet the officials opined that the forward went down too easily?
Now a certain level of pushing, tugging etc has been allowed into the game and I believe that is a follow on from what happens at corner kicks, free kicks. It is seen in every game with outstretched arms, pushing, jostling etc. It annoys me somewhat that in every high level game the referee is certain to stop the restart to speak to players about that. Rarely does anything ever happen such as a penalty kick or free kick and the players go back to the same conduct as before.
BTW the same action elsewhere on the field of play is fairly likely to get called as an offence yet not inside the penalty. Nor rarely would referees speak to players about their conduct and if they did such as a shout of arms down or whatever which went unheeded it would be called.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Doug,

This is a good question. A certain amount of pushing/holding tends to be permitted, so what do we do if somebody is doing that and there is contact with the arm and the ball?

I'm inclined to agree with Ref McHugh's sentiments - I don't believe that 'the arm was there to push the player away' is the sort of body movement IFAB had in mind when they changed to law to whether the arm position is justifiable by the player's body movement. I would agree that this is unnaturally making the body bigger, so it's a foul for me.

I think you're perfectly fine to not call the holding, but call the handling. I don't think penalising the handling has any implications for the holding - like I said, this tends to be accepted in the game, to a certain level (and that will vary across grades, ages and competitions). If you judged that to be not a foul within the context of the game then that's fine.

Having not refereed using the dual system I can't give advise on positioning with that system. I would imagine the position you suggest has some benefits for close ball over the line situation, but a position behind the attackers and to the side should usually be sufficient for calling things around the PA. Just make sure you're getting some sort of angle and you're not directly behind the players (eg standing directly at the top of the PA is usually a terrible position when you're waiting for a cross to come into the area around the Penalty Mark).