Disallowed Goal from a Pass Back Violation

Several times in games you find yourself having to make a series of difficult decisions in quick succession. Its easy to get overwhelmed in these situations and make a simple mistake. We've all had that moment in a game where we get flustered and find ourselves making an easy call difficult and then having an even bigger issue on our hands. Let's look at this video and see how the referee crew made several correct decisions, none of which were tough calls by themselves but when put together created what was probably a very stressful situation for the officials. See how they work together and got the decisions right!





Alright, let's start at the beginning. First, they recognize that a "pass back violation" has occurred. Although the pass back to the goalkeeper was a long kick, all the conditions were met for this to be an offense:

• The ball was kicked (played by the foot) by a teammate of the goalkeeper
• The act was considered to be deliberate (not a deflection)
• The goalkeeper handles the ball directly (no interfering play from when ball was kicked)

It's important to note that if the ball had gone into the net despite the efforts by the goalkeeper to prevent this the referee would have allowed the goal (applied advantage). Instead, the indirect free kick was awarded and the referee allowed a quick free kick to take place. The quick kick was allowed because the ball was stationary, near (enough) to the location of the infraction and there was no other reason to slow play down (injury or misconduct). However the player taking the quick kick forgot that it was an indirect free kick and therefore kicked the ball directly into the net.

The referee made quick eye-contact with the AR to make sure there was no contact with the ball before it entered the net and then announced that the goal was not valid. The thing I like most about this sequence of events is how the whole crew worked together. The AR flagged the initial violation, the referee allowed the quick take, the 4th official communicated with the coach and the AR silently told the Referee there was no contact as the ball when into the net. All this teamwork made it easy to get the call right.

So, what is the restart? First one to email me the correct restart will get a prize!