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LAWS OF THE GAME: ASK THE REFEREE

In response to various questions, the following are responses from the National Referee Program Office:

INTERFERENCE BY AN OUTSIDE AGENT
Question:
Several of us were discussing recent games and the subject of outside agents came up. Most of us have seen banners, umbrellas, seagulls, and the occasional dog on the field. Normally these situations take care of themselves, with the exception of the dog who wants to grab the ball and run with it.

One situation we encounter is when a ball comes onto the field from a neighboring field. Usually a player just kicks it back at the first opportunity.

We saw a situation in a game where a ball comes into the penalty area. Play is not very close, so the keeper picks up the ball and kicks it back to the neighboring field. However, as she is doing so, play in her game turns around and her opponents take a shot and score.

Is this a goal or interference from an outside agent? And why?

Answer:
This is interference by an outside agent. To quote the "Advice to Referees on the Laws of the Game":

An "outside agent" (under any portion of the Laws of the Game) is anything that enters the field without the permission of the referee and plays or misdirects the ball or otherwise interferes with the game. This means that outside agents can be dogs or coaches or spectators. Interference by any outside agent will result in the referee declaring a stoppage of play, restarting with a dropped ball where the ball was when play was stopped.

If the referee was not observant enough to do what the Advice recommends, then he or she was negligent. If the nearer assistant referee did not provide assistance in this situation, then he or she was also negligent.

And then we come to the issue of terminal stupidity: We cannot help feeling that, in this case, the 'keeper shares some culpability. In point of fact, it could be argued that the presence of the ball by itself did not interfere with play; it was the goalkeeper's error in deciding that she should divert her attention from her main job to do something that wasn't strictly necessary. We must repeat the old saying that the Laws of the Game are not intended to compensate for the mistakes of players.

ADVANTAGE? PENALTY KICK? SEND-OFF?
Question:
Two players from opposing teams running towards goal, side by side enter the penalty area. Only the goalkeeper is between them and the goal. the ball is at waist height in front of the attacking player. The defending player raises his foot across the attacker and gets a slight touch on the ball (just enough to take it away from the attacker). At this stage, with the defender's leg outstretched, the attacker falls to the ground.

There is no question that the defender is responsible for tripping the attacker in the penalty area, but there is also no doubt that the defender definitely played the ball away before making any sort of contact with the attacker.

What should the result be? Play on? Penalty? Red card?

Answer:
You do not mention any contact between defender and attacker (opponent). If we assume that there was indeed contact, then we have tripping, just as you suggest, which is punishable by (in this case) a penalty kick. If there was no tripping, then there was a good possibility of playing dangerously, punishable by an indirect free kick. If it was, in the opinion of the referee, playing dangerously, rather than a simple fair play for the ball, then in either case the correct action to be taken is to send off the defender for "denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player's goal by an offense punishable by a free kick or penalty kick." If it was a fair play for the ball, there is no infringement of the Law and nothing should be called.

GOALKEEPER MISHANDLES BALL
Question:
Is the goalie allowed to touch the ball, whether by hand or foot, after they have attempted to dropkick it out of their defensive area? For example: Goalie picks up the ball and attempts to dropkick it but misses the ball completely. Can they pick it up again and kick it if they are inside the area allowed by goalies to handle the ball? Same situation, however the ball is outside the handling area and they kick while it's on the ground. Is this a goalie mishandling infraction?

2nd situation: Goalie goes to dropkick the ball and just nicks the ball with their foot. Can they play the ball again either by picking it up and drop kicking it again or just by running up to it and kicking it?

I'm under the understanding that if a goalie makes a dropkicking motion and nicks or misses the ball, they can not play it again. If they do, it's goalie mishandling and it's an indirect free kick for the other team.

Answer:
If the goalkeeper releases the ball from the hands and kicks it away and it hits the the ground, the ball is in play for everyone and the goalkeeper may not pick it up again until some other player has played it. Correct restart is an indirect for the opposing team from the place where the goalkeeper touched the ball again after releasing it.

On the other hand, the goalkeeper may certainly kick the ball without touching it again with the hands. That has never been an infringement of the Laws.

That said, this sort of thing often occurs among younger and less-skilled players. The referee should use discretion in calling this foul, at least the first time it occurs, during a game with such players. The correct action in that case would be to remind the goalkeeper that he or she may not touch the ball again. We might add at least a brief reminder that, most of the time, this scenario would and should be deemed trifling by the referee and not worth stopping play in order to punish such a violation where no one was impacted.

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