A refereeing dilemma to get your head round (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

A refereeing dilemma to get your head round

3:15pm Friday 31st October 2008

• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

Is a back pass not a back pass if it ends up rolling past the goalkeeper causing mass mayhem in a side’s defence?

That is one of many questions let unanswered following an incident during City’s midweek win over Bury.

Most people at the match – this writer included – didn’t even realise there was an “incident” when visiting defender Ryan Cresswell embarrassingly misplaced his pass to Wayne Brown.

The Bury keeper desperately chased back to his goal-line before flinging himself at the ball, swatting it clear off the whitewash.

Peter Thorne picked up the loose ball and set up Michael Boulding but the City striker saw his shot blocked by a relieved Cresswell.

A corner was given but a few keen observers have since asked: Shouldn’t the referee have awarded a free-kick on the goal-line?

In all the chaos, most people lost sight of the fact Brown actually handled the back-pass, but could that REALLY be classed as a free-kick?

A quick straw poll on the T&A sports desk brought plenty of debate, some feeling the whistle should only be blown if the keeper picks it up, others questioning whether it can even be a back-pass if the ball didn’t go directly to him.

But the FIFA rule book states: “An indirect free-kick is awarded to the opposition team if a goalkeeper, inside his own penalty area, touches the ball with his hands after it has been deliberately kicked to him by a team-mate.”

So, it doesn’t have to be picked up, only touched, which means a free-kick SHOULD have been awarded.

There you go. And that’s clarified by a Bradford referee.

So why wasn’t it? Maybe the official applied an advantage because City seemed certain to score anyway? Should he have pulled it back though when they didn’t find the net?

According to the letter of the law, he could but maybe he just missed the whole thing like the rest. After all, even the City players didn’t react – maybe they will next time.