Question Number: 34730

Law 14 - The Penalty kick 10/8/2022

RE: Rec Under 14

Mr. Chris Twining of Wildomar, CA United States asks...

This question is a follow up to question 34726

Thank you for all the insight. Maybe I can clarify a bit more. Disregard the player taking the dive. I understand our CF's are not perfect.

The CF in question tells me the PK is somewhat of a ceremony though I am still not sure what that means. While I argued that the placement of the PK is done by ref or opposing player, NOT US, we should not be penalized for it. Pretty sure it was slightly off mark.

Our keeper saved the PK and play continued for at least 1 minute before it was stopped and a rekick was taken. I was told later that a different player took the second kick, which was made. We went on to win 3-1, but would have liked the clean card for my girls

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Chris ,
There can be no clarification because only the CR could give us an explanation and frankly there is not one we can think of other than inexperience!

The PK is a simple process of procedures. A defending team commits a DFK offence during active play inside their PA. The attackers get a PK from 12 yds away. Keeper has one foot on their goal line, the PK kicker is lined up in behind the ball as the designated player to take the PK the other 20 players outside the 18 and behind the ball The kicker then receives the ball from the referee and places it on the designated spot. Referee would indicate if the ball was NOT spotted properly. The PK can not to begin until after he blows the whistle.

The PK is ceremonial in nature because it requires a whistled restart WHICH should only occur once everything is A ok to go!

If the referee was claiming the ball was wrongly positioned, if indeed that was what occurred There is nothing under the LOTG that make any sense in what the CR did in retaking the PK after it was saved, and play continued for an additional 60 seconds. Our personal opinion is such a procedure could possibly be protested as a deviation of the LOTG. Given you were victorious such an action is likely not required

However, ff there WAS a valid reason to retake a normal PK , there is no issue with another attacking player taking it as long as that player is identified by the referee before taking it
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Chris
Thanks for the follow up.

The penalty kick is *ceremonial* in that the referee must ensure that certain conditions are met before the kick is allowed to proceed with a signal. Ceremonial is a term used where play is not allowed to proceed until the referee is happy that all the conditions for a restart are in place. A kick off is ceremonial and certain free kicks can be ceremonial in that a referee will ensure all the conditions are in place before a restart is allowed.

Those *ceremonial* conditions for a penalty kick are set out in the previous answers which is part of Law 14. Ball placement is one of those conditions and referees do not place the ball on the mark just the kicker. The referee ensures that the ball is on the mark after it is placed by the player before signalling for the kick to be taken. If the referee is unhappy with the placement the kicker is asked to correct the placement. Until all that happens no signal should be made which allows the kick to be taken.

As to why this should have taken one minute to sort out is unclear to me. There is a summary panel set out in Law 14 which tells referees what they must do in certain outcomes of a kick. It does not state a time yet custom and practice is that the decision is made instantly rarther than delaying other than a brief wait and see period which is seconds. Waiting for over a minute is not one of them so I am at a loss to understand that timing issue. If the kick was saved the kick should have been stopped there and then for whatever reason the referee was going with a retake.

As I said previously a missed flag could take a long time to deal with or perhaps the referee was inexperienced thinking that play had to continue until the next stoppage to deal with it or for that matter it was an afterthought. For what it is worth penalty kicks is one of the laws that referees are most likely to make an error on. A FIFA badged referee in an international game went with an IDFK in error on encroachment on a scoured goal when the correct restart was a retake. It resulted in a replay of the game from that moment onwards and the referee was demoted.

As to a change of kicker that is perfectly acceptable as the retake is a new penalty kick and a team can change the kicker under the Laws as long as the new kicker is identified to the referee. The player with the ball is generally accepted as the kicker.

As to a clean card that is rarely an issue at underage as goal difference rarely counts due to blow outs etc.