Stephen, a referee, asks:
I see plays like this a lot, and I don’t know what to do, or better, what to consider when evaluating this stuff. Can you enlighten me? Can a keeper make a save and then go hurling into the player? Can a player get a last touch and go hurling into the keeper? What gives?
Answer
The answer is simple but you may not appreciate what follows. The way the answer is implemented “depends” on a host of factors which are totally dependent on what you see. Indeed, to a degree, you have complicated the otherwise simple answer by using a couple of words which, individually, have a significant impact on how you implement the “simple answer.”
Players in general make contact with each other on a regular basic throughout a game. And your specific scenario offers the arguably most difficult example.
In general – using, for example, a much easier scenario — say you have a team A field player and a team B field player who make contact with each other. Is there an offense? Could be but probably not. Let’s complicate things — suppose A runs into B. Also possibly not an offense but is a bit more complicated – we now have a scenario which, by the words we used, changed the scenario importantly because now A as done something clearly to B. As a result, we now have to decide why it happened (accidental or deliberate) and whether (either accidental or deliberate) it happened for a reason. What kind of reason – an inability to stop in time and/or a deliberate attempt to gain an unfair advantage. If it was deliberate and for a purpose which is illegal, then we have grounds to punish A (or not depending on the flow of the play at that moment).
Now complicate things significantly and consider the same two opponents, one of whom is a keeper and the other an opposing attacker. Adding a keeper into the scenario complicates the scenario greatly but for reasons which do not appear at all in the Laws of the Game despite having a long and/or practical history. The main factor favoring the keeper is that, first, keepers often are forced to engage in actions which are inherently more dangerous than a challenging attacker and, second, keepers are more likely to draw support from teammates who are more likely in turn to increase the perceived level of possible danger, which leads to a greater likelihood of becoming more angry with the attacker. Unfortunately, the reversal of this lays a greater burden on the attacker if he/she is the one being “touched” by the keeper. Historically and manifestly, keepers gain an advantage even if their behavior is comparatively the same.
The only positive thing we can do as a referee when contact seems likely between an opposing forward and a defending keeper (with the ball on its way to one or both of them) is to quickly go to high gear to get closer and to a better line of sight on: (1) who is moving toward the other (perhaps both simultaneously), (2) who jumps (maybe both), (3) who makes contact first, (4) who uses greater force with respect to the contact, (5) what direction is each party looking just before the impending contact, (6) whether the keeper is going to ground or jumping up higher in order to gain possession of the ball, (7) the immediately following action by both A and B, (8) who is focusing attention on the ball (both or mainly one), (9) which of A or B is making an attempt to avoid impending contact (or whether both are attempting contact), and finally (10) whether contact by one is visible to the other or was out of the other’s view. These ten elements can involve even greater complications if either (or both) are joined by one or more teammates added to the fray.
As you can see, the impending contact between keeper and/or attacker is simple in terms of specifying the parties involved but extraordinarily more complicated when it comes to a decision as to what exactly happened before, during, and immediately after the contact or possession of the ball. Overall, however, there is a general and commonly held opinion that, of the two opponents we are considering here, the one who gains firm possession before any subsequent contact between the opponent (attacker or keeper) has the stronger case prior to the other player’s attempts to challenge for the ball. However, there is an equally common opinion that the keeper encounters more personal danger in the process of challenging for the ball than does the attacker if both otherwise have a comparable likelihood of possessing the ball.
Note, however, that younger players require an even closer look and greater care because they generally lack the ability to understand “danger” — the older and/or more experienced the player the easier it is to take into consideration the ten elements offered above.
