A&H

Penalty or not

T

ThatWasShocking

New Member
I've given two penalties today in U18 game and don't care they were whinging. I am more interested if I made the right calls cause I'm having some doubts now and perhaps I have gotten wrong there. Especially with the first penalty.

Two decent teams, first team of one playing just under national league or something so some smartass young players but most well-behaved.
First penalty
Shot on goal from about 5-6 meters away, hits defending player on the hand. Kick was from close distant, yeah, but then again, he stopped attempt on goal. I gave it. Defending team says - close distant, apparently natural position. Fair points to a degree. I said that he at the same time pretty much stopped shot on goal. Maybe I was wrong. In my mind atm it had to be penalty, cause otherwise ball would go right into goal, doubt goalie would have been able to do do anything about it. Maybe I was wrong, But in the moment, I called it cause it felt right. I thought about it since and I'm still on edge but felt like not giving it would have been worse.
In terms of defending player's position - he was sideways to the goal, ball hit his forearm, that was outstretched. No idea how to explain it, imagine legoman sideways :).

Second pen. Ball played into the penalty area. Now the opposite side of the pitch. Defending player is pretty far from the ball but gives a proper two-hand shove on the back of attacking player in front of the goal. I give penalty. It was just too obvious. Again whinging. Defending team bench getting mental, later accusing me of all sort of stuff. Of course no one pushed anyone, I am hallucinating. This one I am more comfortable with as shove was obvious and strong.

The first one is bugging me a little. Team I gave it against won in the end but I'm curious what should be my first consideration in such situations and what would more seasoned refs do
 
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The only considerations are whether it was intentional as described in the laws. You state two criteria, proximity and 'natural position'. Sounds potentially harsh but you had to be there to be certain!

From what you describe, once given, it was potentially dogso, did that cross your mind?
 
No, I didn't consider dogso, but now that is pointed out to me, I guess I should have. It definitely wasn't intentional as in defender trying to actively stop the ball. It's just that his arms were "sticking out" as he stood sideways. Shot was taken from about 6m away from then goal, defender was maybe 1-2 meters in front of attacker. Handball was obvious, no doubt about it even by defending team and I saw it clearly being at the edge of penalty area.
It's just that it was definite shot on goal from very short distance and defenders hand stopped it. I had doubts the minute I called it. But then had he not been hit in the hand the ball would likely go in the goal. And now I'm thinking it shouldnt have been my consideration.
 
The most important point here is to dismiss any notion that a team isn't allowed to 'gain an advantage' from a handball that you decide is accidental. Unless it is an attacker scoring a goal from a handball (which is prohibited) it is entirely possible and within the laws for teams to benefit from the ball accidentally hitting a hand. So the only real consideration in your OP is whether the arm was in a natural position for the body movement being undertaken. If the defender was eg standing still but had their arm out for no apparent reason, this this would be unnatural. If, on the other hand, they were running, then the arms would naturally come away from the body.

The second one sounds a nailed on penalty :)
 
With regards to the handball decision - at the point of making the call, what could have happened afterwards shouldn't be your consideration (for the time being), focus purely on the handling of the ball.

The laws of the game give us 2 points to consider in this instance.

- Did the defender deliberately touch the ball with their hand/arm? (e.g. move hand/arm towards the ball)
- Did the defender touch the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player's body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised.

You should also consider proximity of the defender to the original strike, any deflections, etc.

Usually with handball - your gut will give you the answer of whether it is deliberate handball or not and best not to overthink it.

Once you have made your decision of whether a handball offence has been committed, you then need to consider if the handball offence interfered with or stopped a promising attack (caution), or did it deny an obvious goal scoring opportunity (send off - double jeopardy does not apply to handball)

Would you have given the same decision anywhere else on the pitch? Or were you swayed by the fact that it happened in the penalty area and the potential outcome of a goal? Did the game expect you to give a penalty or was it a surprise?
 
Thank you, for all the pointers. I definitely should have considered dogso. In terms of natural position, yeah, perhaps. I'm slightly on the edge whether it was fully justified but I'm beginning to think I might have been a bit too hasty giving the penalty. I'll remember next time

In terms of surprise, there wasn't any, attacking team wasn't for sure, defending was just appealing against it, but that's to be expected. Handball was evident, it's just the rest that was to interpretation.
 
ThatWasShocking said:
Thank you, for all the pointers. I definitely should have considered dogso. In terms of natural position, yeah, perhaps. I'm slightly on the edge whether it was fully justified but I'm beginning to think I might have been a bit too hasty giving the penalty. I'll remember next time
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To nitpick, it wouldn't be DOGSO, but could be DOG. The real question here is whether the ball was going into the goal. Not quite sure from what you wrote how clear it was. But you don't mention cautioning--at a minimum this was SPA.
 
Remember that the arms need to be somewhere. All you need to decide is did they move their arm towards the ball, or was the position of their arm making their body unnaturally bigger. If their arm is in a justifiable position for the movement they were making at the time then it isn't an offence. Players aren't obliged to put their arms behind their backs, even though that is now routinely coached, equally they can't stand there imitating the angel of the north and expect to not be penalised.
 
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