Question Number: 35658

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 8/16/2024

Joe Carlucci of Pleasanton, CA USA asks...

Attacking team approaches goal and crosses in from the right side. Attacking winger on the left side enters the box but cross never reaches her and ball is cleared away and up the field by the defense, and being contested in midfield by by both teams. Winger engages defender still in the box, and shoves the defender while play is up the field. Penalty kick or not?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Joe,

The term shove could refer to a simple one hand push away versus a two handed into the back whippersnapper into a puddle on the ground? Thus possibly nothing, play continues with no card, to something and we stop, to something and we stop and must card or at least card at the next stoppage if advantage is in play.

Whether that shove is disregarded as such by the AR or CR, is really determined by the force used, potential retaliation, and perhaps on history or previous behaviour. The discretionary powers are vast but if we ignore it or fail to deal with it effectively it could create further issues later. We can ignore some trifling actions away from play, but, a FOUL, is still a foul.

You are stating it is the attacker(winger) initiating the foul against the defender so it would be a DFK out from that point of the shove. Now if the defenders HAD clear ball possession you could play advantage if play was way up field rather than bring the ball back to take a free kick. But whether a card was necessary at the next stoppage, a stern warning for off the ball shenanigans should likely be considered!

If it was the defender who did the pushing ball initiating the foul against the winger it would be a PK as any DFK foul is upgraded inside the opposition PA. Even if the attackers had complete ball possession at mid field you would not apply advantage for that attack probability as the PK is most certainly a better advantage!

Given the ball was being contested and if the shove was a milk toast affair you could let play continue with perhaps a warning to the offending player(s)? Just to let everyone know, your over the shoulder checking was first rate, because you saw it, thus did not ignore it, by highlighting he was on your radar for off the ball garbage!

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Joe,
This hinges firstly on whether the referee judges that the shove constitutes an offence or not. If the referee does not see this as a foul then obviously, play should continue. If on the other hand the referee decides that the shove rises to the level of a punishable offence then it becomes a question of whether the advantage rule applies or not.

If the team that was offended against would be better off if play were to continue from where it is in the midfield area then the referee should apply the advantage rule. However if there's no advantage to them, then a direct free kick kick should be awarded to the defending team from the position of the offence.

There is no possibility of a penalty kick here since the offence was committed by the attacking team in the oppontent's penalty, area not in the attacker's own penalty area.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Joe
Thanks for the question.

The answer hinges on how egregious the contact is between the winger and the defender and whether advantage can be played or not.

Clearly if the contact is violent conduct the offender is dismissed and the restart is a direct free kick from where the offence took place. It can only be a penalty kick if the offence took place in the offender’s own penalty area.

As to what you describe a referee has to decide if the shove needed to be dealt with immediately or to wait until the next stoppage. Consideration has to be given as to what is happening at the ball as the offended against team may not want play brought all the way back to their penalty area for perhaps a free kick only. Different matter in a red card situation which must always be dealt with immediately unless in an immediate scoring situation.

As a referee I would always dwell on contact between players particularly those that end up on the ground. Most times players just get on with play while other times players can take exception to the contact ending up as a spat that needs immediate attention while play is close by.
Clearly efforts should be made to try to prevent such situations escalating into violent conduct or for that matter keeping a watch to see what is happening without missing what is happening at the ball.