A&H

Penalty Spot

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OIREF!

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Prior to my game on Saturday I spent 5 minutes watching a youth match on the adjacent pitch. One of the teams were awarded a penalty and the designated kicker had a moan that the penalty spot was in a hollow but the referee insisted on the ball being placed on the marked spot. Actually from where I was standing it looked pretty bad - the lower 1/3 of the ball seemed to disappear into the ground. What followed was quite comical - the penalty taker completely miskicked the ball which bounced, spun up around 10ft in the air, deceived the keeper and went into the goal. In my opinion the miskick was entirely due to the ball being placed on the hollow where the penalty spot was. My question is - would you have allowed the kicker to have moved the ball slightly to avoid the hollow?
 
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OIREF! said:
Prior to my game on Saturday I spent 5 minutes watching a youth match on the adjacent pitch. One of the teams were awarded a penalty and the designated kicker had a moan that the penalty spot was in a hollow but the referee insisted on the ball being placed on the marked spot. Actually from where I was standing it looked pretty bad - the lower 1/3 of the ball seemed to disappear into the ground. What followed was quite comical - the penalty taker completely miskicked the ball which bounced, spun up around 10ft in the air, deceived the keeper and went into the goal. In my opinion the miskick was entirely due to the ball being placed on the hollow where the penalty spot was. My question is - would you have allowed the kicker to have moved the ball slightly to avoid the hollow?
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Probably. I might have "checked" the distance of the spot and mad rit slightly long or short.

Incidentally was the spot actually marked or was it just a grassless patch as they tend to be on parks.
 
Rule of common sense has to apply surely? Let them take it a little off-centre from the mark? Preferably in a way that his standing foot won't go into the hollow ofc.
 
OIREF! said:
My question is - would you have allowed the kicker to have moved the ball slightly to avoid the hollow?
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Asking the wrong question. The question is would have you checked the field before the game and asked for a bit of dirt to put in the hollow and made it flat?

In the absence of that, or on the spot repair, I would have moved the ball slightly. But in this instance it looks like two wrongs made a right.
 
one said:
The question is would have you checked the field before the game and asked for a bit of dirt to put in the hollow and made it flat?
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Yes, that is what should have happened particularly as from a distance the hollow looked deep enough to have been dangerous.
 
Anubis said:
I would allow the ball to be moved
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I would have done the same (have done in the past) and I thought it was a bit unreasonable not to allow the ball to be moved slightly. The scenario was compounded by the penalty being given for a rather dubious (my opinion) hand ball in the first place so the poor referee was getting it from both teams. Turned out the team who were awarded the penalty lost 3-2 so no harm done in the end!
 
Suppose if thats going to happen, ideally its in the first half, allowimg us to advise the other team, " look if you get a pen in the second half, you can move the ball too"
 
JamesL said:
In reality the ball need only marginally overhang the penalty "mark" so the ref was probably being overly officious in the first place.
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Good point, and given the size of the penalty mark is not specified in laws, I am well within my rights to assume a one foot diameter penalty mark. 😊

Anubis said:
Suppose if thats going to happen, ideally its in the first half, allowimg us to advise the other team, " look if you get a pen in the second half, you can move the ball too"
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Or if in second half, "look if you had a pen in first half I would have let you move it too."
 
Spirit of the game etc.

Move the ball slightly to the left (assuming the player is right-footed) and crack on. :) 👍
 
Kes said:
Spirit of the game etc.

Move the ball slightly to the left (assuming the player is right-footed) and crack on. :) 👍
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I fail to see the connection between which way you move the ball and what foot it is kicked with.
 
one said:
I fail to see the connection between which way you move the ball and what foot it is kicked with.
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If you were left footed your right foot could be in the divot whilst kicking the ball. So to avoid this, a left footer could move the ball slightly to the right of the 'mark' avoiding any potential complications.
 
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JamesL said:
If you were left footed your right foot could be in the divot whilst kicking the ball. So to avoid this, a left footer could move the ball slightly to the left of the 'mark' avoiding any potential complications.
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Got it. Just have to know my left from right? 😉😊
 
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If am allowing the ball to be moved slightly from the exact spot, the last thing i am doing is arguing about what side etc
If this divot is deep enough that it could say, cause a twisted ankle, esp given where on the pitch it is, then iit should not be there at all.
Am entering into the spirit of the game by being accomodating to the moved ball, ( as per say a windy day and allowing goal kick from moving ball), then the least the players can do is work with me
 
Whenever I've run into this, I've usually just asked the taker to put the ball slightly behind the "spot" - attacking team are happy because it gives them a clear ball to kick and defending team are happy because the ball is further away. "Happy" being relative in this case, given I've just given a probably contentious penalty against them!
 
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