Ajibola, a U13 – U19 referee, asks:
If a player throws ball directly into the net, is it a goal?
Answer
Maybe. Depends on who is doing the throwing, where the handling occurred, and which goal the ball enters. Your question theoretically involves four different scenarios, each one with two subscenarios:
- Red player (not the goalkeeper) throws the ball into his own net
- Red goalkeeper throws the ball into his own net
- Red player (not the goalkeeper) throws the ball into the opposing team’s net
- Red goalkeeper throws the ball into the opposing team’s net
Separated out this way, we think it likely that you could answer the question yourself but, because answering questions is our business (and we enjoy doing it), we’ll go ahead and confirm your answers. They are in the same order below as the scenarios are listed above.
- The Red player has committed a DFK foul (PK if inside his own penalty area) but we apply advantage in either case and allow the resulting goal to count. Of course, the goal is credited to the opposing team, making the advantage all the sweeter.
- The Red goalkeeper has committed no offense if he handled it inside his own penalty area and, therefore, we allow the goal. If it was handled outside the penalty area, we apply advantage just as we did in 1 and, of course, credit the goal in either case to the opposing team.
- The Red player committed an offense but advantage is not applicable. We do not allow the goal if he handled the ball outside his penalty area and restart with a DFK for the opposing team where the handling occurred. If the handling occurred inside the Red player’s own penalty area, the goal is still not counted but the opposing team is given a PK at the Red team’s end of the field.
- If the handling occurred inside the Red goalkeeper’s penalty area, advantage does not apply (because there was no offense), the goal counts for the Red team, and the restart is a KO. However, if the Red goalkeeper handled the ball outside his penalty area, we would not count the goal and restart with a DFK where the Red goalkeeper handled the ball.
There may be misconduct issues but this gets too complicated and our head is hurting already.
