Shawn, a High School and College referee, asks:

When the keeper makes a save and has secured the ball, either with both hands, against his body, or against the ground, and an attacker dislodges the ball without a “normal” foul, the most common restart is a “manufactured” drop ball, allowing the keeper to play as if it never happened. However, I can’t find the rationale for this. Several experienced referees tell me it’s a foul, and the restart is a direct free kick. Other experienced referees tell me it’s playing the ball while it’s not in challenge, and the restart is an indirect free kick. What’s the restart?

Answer

You can’t find the rationale for it?  That’s because there is none.  Opinion is split as to whether the correct restart is an IFK or a DFK but there is no one anywhere in the world of any stature or experience who would say it is a dropped ball (“manufactured” or otherwise).

Here’s the story.  Years ago, around the time the world was formed (the soccer world anyway), it was OK to try to knock the ball out of the goalkeeper’s (GK’s) control.  Indeed, it was expected.  Over the intervening years, particularly as soccer split into two divergent paths as soccer in contrast with rugby, such rock-em, sock-em techniques were softened and civilized (you might infer our prejudices from this language).  The 1984 Lawbook, for example, Law 12 declared that it was an indirect free kick (IFK) offense to charge the GK … except when he was holding the ball!  In fact, it was an IFK offense if, in the opinion of the referee, any attacker intentionally made body contact with the GK.  Similarly, it was also an IFK restart if an opponent interfered with the GK’s release of the ball into play.

This is a great oversimplification but nonetheless is particularly pertinent when it comes to protecting the only person who is legally permitted to hold the ball, thus making him a prime target.  In partial payment for having this protected possession of the ball, Law 12 laid several major restrictions: the ball must be released within four steps (now six seconds), no GK handling from a throw-in or a deliberate play of the ball by a teammate’s foot, and no repossession of the ball without an intervening touch/play by someone else.

We come now, admittedly through incremental steps, to today’s flat out statement that “A goalkeeper cannot be challenged by an opponent when in control of the ball.” (Law 12.2)  But the penalty for this technically remains an IFK.  Of course, that changes if the challenge, in and of itself, clearly comes under the heading of a DFK foul as described in the first part of Law 12 (e.g., opponent comes rushing into the GK and knocks him down – a challenge, yes, but also an illegal charge, resulting in a DFK restart, plus potentially a card of some color).  Then we have the grey area where the GK clearly has hand control of the ball and an opponent heads, kicks, or otherwise dislodges the ball from the GK’s control without making any direct contact with the GK.  The debate raged after after a couple of famous disputes involving opponents coming unexpectedly from behind a GK and neatly, nonviolently dislodging the ball from the GK’s grasp.  Was this even a foul?  Eventually  the Law was updated  making that a foul by providing that the GK had control of the ball even if the ball was being held openly and loosely in the upraised palm of just one hand (or even upside down if the GK’s grasp were particularly large).  In many parts of the world, however, this remained merely an IFK offense.  Clearly, it interfered with the GK’s release of the ball into play.

The US, however, took a different tack.  USSF’s interpretation of your scenario is that it was more than a mere challenge for the ball – the ball was simply an indirect way of actually making contact with the GK.  After all, a GK would be charged with pushing – a DFK foul – if the GK used “only” the ball to physically make contact with and push an opponent.  If an opponent, no matter how neatly, kicked the ball out of the GK’s hand or hands, this was the functional equivalent of kicking the goalkeeper.  As a consequence, the following language has appeared in each of the last four editions of Advice to Referees starting back in 2008:

When a goalkeeper has possession of the ball, any attempt by any opponent to charge, tackle, or otherwise challenge for the ball is prohibited. Such a challenge is considered to be a direct free kick foul because it is directed at the person of the goalkeeper and not as a legal attempt to gain the ball. A ball controlled by the goalkeeper using means other than his or her hands is open to legal challenge by an opponent. The referee must consider the age and skill level of the players in evaluating goalkeeper possession and err on the side of safety. [emphasis added]

A long wind-up but we think it answers your question.…

Henrik, a U13 – U19 referee, asks:

I have often experienced in my games that players say “Hey, referee! He touched me with both his hands in my back!”  But is it really true that a referee should always punish this?  I don’t think that two hands TOUCHING the back of an opponent is careless. If he pushed him, then yes of course it could be a foul, but if he just touches the opponent, then why should I always punish it, if it’s harmless?

Answer

First of all, never say “never” (or “always”) when it comes to refereeing.

Second, in the large majority of cases, merely putting a hand (or even both hands) on the back of an opponent would not constitute a foul.  After all, as you implicitly note, the foul is called “pushing” for a reason – if there is no push, there is no foul … usually.

Third, even the gentle breeze on the back of a player could, under some circumstances, be considered a foul if done by an opponent rather than weather conditions.  The critical question is, why did the opponent put a hand (or hands) on the player’s back?  What was the player doing at the time?

Consider the following scenario.  A15 is at a location where she judges a ball struck high in the air is likely to descend and believes she is in a good position to gain control of that ball.  Unexpectedly, she feels a hand (or hands) on her back with just the smallest amount of pressure.  She was not aware of anyone there, much less close enough to have touched her, and, so far throughout the game, no opponent had touched her on the back in the normal course of play.  She briefly turned her head to see who it was and, as a result, was distracted enough that, in fact, an opponent coming in from the side was able to get a foot on the ball before she could.

Now, was the touch on the back innocent … or was it deliberate?  While not exactly a usual pushing foul, was it done for an unfair and otherwise unsporting purpose?  Did all this occur under circumstances in which it would be an entirely normal, though unwelcome, response to be distracted … and particularly at a critical moment?  What was her reaction to the event and to its consequences?

The older and more experienced the players, the less likely it is that events occur by accident.  If you judge the contact was innocent, ordinary, and performed with no unfair intent (and particularly if it did not have the result of distracting the “touchee”), a simple comment in passing to the toucher to keep her hands off opponents would be sufficient.  If you judge otherwise, and particularly if it had what you believe was the intended result (and advantage would not apply), call a pushing foul — it wasn’t strictly “careless”  but it was certainly intentional and unfair.

As you move up the competitive ladder, your sense of what is a foul (and even whether it should be whistled or not) has to become more complex.  It will need to take into account a number of questions that may not have occurred to you earlier in your officiating career.  Mastering this change will get you recognized as capable of moving into more challenging games.  It also means that you will need to recognize when there is a potential for the sort of game situation we just described above and will have moved into a position to see what most needs to be seen at that moment.…

Rinku, an adult amateur Referee, asks:

If in case I discover that a team has 12 players by mistake, what should I do if I am the referee?

Answer

Well, in general, you correct the situation as soon as you become aware of it.  However, what you do also depends on what substitution rules you are using (e.g., standard Law 3 or some local variation) and whether there is a goal scored that can complicate the matter.

The best solution, of course, is to not let it happen in the first place … which means don’t rush through a substitution without following, as closely as possible, the requirements of Law 3.  There are only two scenarios that can result in an “extra player” getting on the field: one is an error in a substitution (allowing two substitutes to come on) and the other is that a substitute simply enters the field during play.  The first is definitely the fault of you and/or the bench-side AR and is easily preventable. The second is something that can happen any time, but all members of the officiating team should be aware fairly quickly when it does.

Where the problem arises more commonly is when the rules of competition don’t adhere to Law 3 and allow unlimited substitutions with “the right of return” (which is often the case in youth recreational matches).  Law 3 is strict — a team gets only a certain number of substitutions and, once substituted, a player cannot return to the field.  This means that you can easily keep a record of which players started (by jersey number, for example) and then update this by noting which player left and which substitute replaced that player. If you follow this practice faithfully, you will always know who is a legal player and who is not.

Youth recreational play seriously muddies the water and you simply must keep track at least by not restarting play without someone (you or an AR) counting the players on the field before signaling that the substitution has been properly completed and play can be restarted.  Too many referees get sloppy and pay no attention to the details of a substitution.  Normally, you can get away with this but the problem is that, when an “extra player” results, the correction can become complicated.

Still, however it happens, you are faced with 12 players on the field for a team and it must be handled.  In the simplest case, if play is going on and you can catch the “12th player” quickly before he or she becomes involved in or interferes with play, you can verbally order the person to leave the field without stopping play and, assuming the person follows your order, just allow play to continue with no further action needed.  If you do not become aware of the existence of a “12th player” until after that person actually becomes involved in or interferes with play, you must stop play, order the “12th player” to leave after showing a yellow card for illegally entering the field, and restart with a direct free kick or penalty kick (depending on where the player was at the time).

The issue of “interference” is key.  A substitute, for example, might enter the field for some reason during play, realize the illegality of this (or have you or an AR shout to him or her), and quickly leave the field. This does not call for either stopping play or issuing a caution. Stop play only in the case of involvement/interference, thus triggering the need for a card and the proper restart.

Where things get complicated because you haven’t been following proper procedure and don’t know which person on the field is the “12^th player,” then you have to try to figure it out.  You can check with the ARs (if you have them) and get their input.  If no information comes to you (from rerunning through your mind the most recent substitutions or using information from an AR), then you can only do one of two things – simply order that one of the 12 players leave the field and chalk it up to your error or you can tell the captain (or the coach) to pick which of his team’s players must leave but whomever he picks is also going to receive a yellow card for illegally entering the field. By the way, note that neither of these two options is supported by the Laws of the Game because the Law assumes you did what you were supposed to do and would therefore always know who the extra player was!  They are entirely our own, decidedly unofficial, practical advice.

There is one seriously complicating factor if you discover the extra player at a stoppage resulting from a goal being scored.  Now, you have an additional problem – what to do about the goal.  The Law says that the goal counts if the team that scored had the correct number of players on the field at the time but does not count if it was scored by the team which had the extra player.  If the goal is cancelled, the restart is a direct free kick from where the extra player was at the time play stopped for the apparent goal.  Unfortunately, if the continued existence of that extra player is not discovered until after play was restarted with a kick-off, the goal is counted.  The best way to prevent this from ever happening is to do a quick count of the players, both at the time the goal was scored and again before the restart (in case an extra player entered during the stoppage). In any event, the presence of an extra player after a kick-off must still be handled as described above even if it is ultimately determined that the extra player was on the field prior to the goal being scored.

Finally, note that everything described here applies equally to any extra person on the field, including team officials.  However, if the extra person is an outside agent (e.g., spectator), any stoppage requiring a restart must use a dropped ball instead.…