Question:
In the final few minutes of a tied match the referee correctly awards a normal PK to the blue team.
The whistle signal to begin the PK occurs first.
Then, out of sight of the referee, outside the penalty area, a red defender deliberately kicks the ankle of a blue attacker. The PK is taken but initially saved by the keeper; however, the rebound is fought for. In a bit of scruffy ping-pong play the ball eventually winds up inside the red goal. Referee was good to go with the goal and a kick off but when he looks over to the lead AR to confirm, he sees the AR has raised his flag pointing across to the trail AR. By now a blue attacker is retaliating against the red defender punching him, so the referee is briefly unaware that the raised flag was to mirror the TRAIL AR who witnessed the kicking offense! After the MESS is discussed and the dust settles the referee disallows the goal, retakes the PK and only cautions the defender who kicked and the attacker who punched!
The retaken PK is saved and the game ends tied.
If you were referee what would you have done differently, if anything at all?
USSF answer (March 21, 2009):
The defender’s action had no part to play in the penalty kick, so there has been no violation of the procedure for taking a penalty kick — and, even if did, the violation would fall under the “violation by defender but the ball went into the net so it counts” rule. The defender’s action occurred during a stoppage of play (remember, the whistle had been blown but it appears the ball had not yet been put into play) — thus, it is not a foul and therefore advantage cannot be applied to it. The referee has until the next stoppage to take care of it, but in this case the next stoppage is for the goal scored from the penalty kick and the subsequent play.
Accordingly:
(1) goal counts
(2) “deliberately kicks the ankle” sounds like violent conduct, so send off the defender
(3) although poorly constructed,the following “By now a blue attacker is retaliating against the red defender punching him” seems to mean that that the blue attacker was punching the red defender in retaliation (because the red defender didn’t punch him, he kicked him in the ankle) so the blue attacker should be sent off for violent conduct because this occurred during a stoppage of play. If we have read the sentence incorrectly, then the blue attacker might not get a red card for VC but he surely gets some card for retaliating.
(4) Restart with a kick-off
