Question Number: 35871

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 1/29/2025

RE: Adult

Damianos of Athens, Attiki Greece asks...

This question is a follow up to question 35868

First of all I would like to thank you for your answers.

What refs McHugh and Dawson described was more or less the same as what I initial thought.

What ref Grove pointed out though is probably what is confusing me. In both cases I assume that the Goalkeeper is in control of the ball. Even in the second one, he is in mid air but the ball is between his two hands.

So perhaps the questions are,

Is the goalkeeper in control of the ball from the first instant the ball is between his arms? (on the 2nd incident is the GK in control mid air?)

What constitutes a challenge when the GK is in control of the ball? Is the bump on the 1st incident a challenge, or possibly in the 2nd incident the fact that the attacker didn't "clear" the landing space?


Thanks again!

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Damianos

In both instances tne goalkeepers are in control of the ball even the one in mid air. So there is no real debate about that.

On the first one yes technically it is an offence for the first bump yet does the game really want to be calling such trifling offences? It had zero impact on play yet the goalkeeper chose to escalate into a violent conduct incident which had to be dealt with..

On the 2nd one the goalkeeper had control of the ball yet it was in my opinion his action of landing on top of an opponent led to the ball being spilled. In my opinion had the opponent did something more such as make a challenge that would be an offence by the attacker.
The referee decided to award a free kick to the goalkeeper and the game has come to expect a foul on the goalkeeper when there is seen to be contact. It was the easier decision was to go with the free kick to the goalkeeper.
I saw a similar incident today in a game and the referee went with a free kick to the goalkeeper as a penalty would have seen to be very harsh.

I had a laugh with a retired goalkeeper at the game as he said the goalkeepers’ union expects a free kick to goalkeepers in these situations and therein is why these go the way of the goalkeeper rather than an opponent or perhaps no call if the ball is cleared away with nothing more happening.

Law 12 tells us that
A goalkeeper is considered to be in control of the ball with the hand(s)
#   the ball is between the hands or between the hand and any surface (e.g. ground, own body) or by touching it with any part of the hands or arms, except if the ball rebounds from the goalkeeper or the goalkeeper has made a save
# holding the ball in the outstretched open hand
# bouncing it on the ground or throwing it in the air

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Damianos,
as my colleague notes we do tend to go with the easier sell, simply leaning to what what everyone expects as best for the game. The possession aspect keepers are afforded inside the PA of the 6 seconds of control and to not be impeded in their release of the ball back into play where the opposition can then challenge, are flexible, in we generally give the keeper some leeway in not making every bump, (a put the ball on the ground for a free kick) or if they make a save we allow some reasonable recovery time before we would be concerned with the 6 seconds release requirement.

If they are bouncing the ball and it hits a bad bit of ground or say off their toe as a mistake and it rolls away they quickly recover again even if no opponent was there to take advantage, we likely allow them to reacquire the ball within reason and punt it out. Knowing it was not a time wasting tactic, we MIGHT be in a, OK fine but a verbal hurry up indication by the referee, counting the bounce drop and repick-up as part of the WHOLE release requirement being used up, so punt the darn thing out quickly.

The keeper lost possession in that 2nd incident by the way he performed the save, not by the opponent trying to foul him! He basically bounced the ball off the head/shoulders of the attacker. Just as we do not worry about a SAVE being a Parry, if the keeper could have reacquired the ball he would be seen as if starting from scratch not a release. It is important to be aware and proactive as an official to not CREATE a bigger problem by overlooking a smaller one. Both teams need to both earn & not be unfairly denied their goals, however they should not be gifted to them on iffy technicalities.
Cheers