The Ref Stop

Man C v BHA - backpass claim

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Level 3W and
Level 4 Referee
Watch from 5:15 here https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/videos/cqx28l2gdepxo

I believe that this is a deliberate kick to the GK by a team mate and should be penalised when the GK scoops it up. However everything I have seen from The FA in CPD suggests they want an extremely high bar for these offences, looking for any possible excuse to avoid penalising, so they might be happy with playing on here.

Vuskovic's reaction suggests to me that he knows it may be wrong and has to try and convince the ref and everyone watching otherwise.

Any other opinions on this and similar defensive actions?

I think if it was punishable by a corner kick instead of an IDFK then refs and the authorities would be far less reluctant to intervene.
 
The Ref Stop
I’m sort of ok, not being a back pass, the defender had no other option than to intercept the ball the way he did.

Haaland behind him, it wasn’t a conscious decision to pass the ball to the GK but an interception.

I agree a corner kick instead of a IDFK makes sense in law for this offence.
 
The defender has deliberately played the ball to the goalkeeper, but from the angles available I don't believe there is any offence here - the ball appears to come off his shin rather than being kicked, and the defender has not used a trick to circumvent the law.
 
I’m sort of ok, not being a back pass, the defender had no other option than to intercept the ball the way he did.

Haaland behind him, it wasn’t a conscious decision to pass the ball to the GK but an interception.

I agree a corner kick instead of a IDFK makes sense in law for this offence.
'No other option' isn't an exception to the law. An attacking team doesn't deserve to lose out for putting the defending team in a difficult situation.

The defender has deliberately played the ball to the goalkeeper, but from the angles available I don't believe there is any offence here - the ball appears to come off his shin rather than being kicked, and the defender has not used a trick to circumvent the law.
Initial contact is boot to ball then the ball slightly rolls up his leg.
 
Unfortunately the clip is geo blocked. IMO the conceptual question is whether the player (1) deliberately kicked it to the GK or (2) deliberately kicked it away from the attacker and it happened to go to the GK. And that gets us into shockingly ambiguous territory. I also think that, when time wasting isn’t in play, the Game wants us to err on the side of 2 and not call an offense.

The law was put in because of the grotesque tedium of end game lead protection that had endless long passes back to the GK to pick it up and use up time before putting it back into active play. Yes, it has also taken on a secondary purpose of eliminating the deliberate safety pass to the GK who picks it up, I think the Game wants it to be blatant because of the harsh consequence. (The U.S. had a harsher interpretation of a number of years in which “deliberate” was applied only to the kick—so any deliberate kick meant the GK could not use hands. That view is gone even here.)
 
I don't think there's any doubt he's knocking it back to the goalkeeper deliberately. It's not desperate interception he knows exactly what he's doing.
If he wanted to clear it he'd have swung his left foot at it but risk of going in to the net.

Still not giving it as a pass back, more blatant ones than this not given on the regular

 
'Interception' isn't an exception to the law either.
It isn't, but you have to be confident that he intentionally played the ball back to the keeper. I'm just not seeing that, as someone who played centre back the only thing you are thinking about in that situation is not scoring an own goal. To think that someone sliding back towards his own goal will make a deliberate decision to play it deliberately to the keeper is giving way too much credence to footballer brains.
 
It isn't, but you have to be confident that he intentionally played the ball back to the keeper. I'm just not seeing that, as someone who played centre back the only thing you are thinking about in that situation is not scoring an own goal. To think that someone sliding back towards his own goal will make a deliberate decision to play it deliberately to the keeper is giving way too much credence to footballer brains.
I'm seeing a defender who has his goalkeeper right in front of him and has to play the ball to said goalkeeper to avoid scoring an own goal. That does not give the GK licence to use his hands on the ball. This outcome is unfair to the attacking team who have created a good goalscoring opportunity.
 
I think a reasonable ref could come out either way on whether it was deliberately played to the GK (I lean towards saying yes). But kick requires foot, and it looks to me like it came off his lower leg, which (as someone noted above) means it cannot be an “back pass” offense.

(Thanks @bester for posting the GIF)
 
I don't think there's anything wrong with the decision to conclude it wasn't a deliberate backpass, but had he given it he could have justified it.

As for the 'handball', not for me. Not sure what you want/expect the defender to do.
 
For the potential back pass I'm pretty sure he plays it with his shin, a kick can only be with the foot therefore he can't have kicked it, deliberately or otherwise, to the keeper.

As for the handball, absolutely no chance in my view. Both arms are in supportable positions and it bounces off one onto the other, really don't see how he can avoid that happening.
 
I’m not sure on the HB without seeing it at full speed. In slow motion, the first arm looks deliberate to me as he leans into the ball (no chance of HB on the second arm)
 
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