Trip or dive?

[one]

This to some extent is a you have to be there but I will try and explain it as best as I can.

Attacker is running forward with the ball. Defender slides in both feet on the ground from the side ahead of the attacker by a yard or two to block the ball. The attacker sees the defender coming and chips the ball up forward. The defender makes no contact with the ball. The attacker now has the option, ability and enough time to skip over the defender’s feet in front of him but continues on his normal run and is tripped by the defender (or you could say gets himself tripped by the defender).

Is this a trip, play on or a dive?

Would it be any different if it was in the PA (you know.. you have to be sure for a pen and all that)?

 

[Peter Grove]

As you say, it's a YHTBT situation but for me that reads more like a trip. I don't see that a player is under any obligation to take evasive action when an opponent launches themselves into the player's path. If the attacker alters their run or sticks a leg out to initiate contact that wouldn't otherwise have happened, that's a different kettle of fish. How do we know that the player really had the option, ability and enough time to avoid the challenge? Maybe they might have been able to do so but, on seeing the opponent suddenly blocking their path, they mentally hesitated a fraction and lost the opportunity. I think the onus should be more on the defender to avoid putting themself in the forward's path, than on the forward to take evasive action.

I guess it does depend partly on the timing and spacing involved however. If the defender is on the ground 10 yards ahead of the forward and the forward has more or less runs up and kicks him, that would change the equation.

And no, it shouldn't matter if it's in the penalty area or not - as far as I'm concerned it's all about who is more responsible for initiating the contact.

 

[RyantheRef]

The major question here is whether there was time for the attacker to avoid the defender or not. Remember that when a player takes up a position on the pitch, it is usually the responsibility of other players not to run into him. If the player did have the ability or time to skip over the attacker, then it is no-foul, play on. If he did not have time to do it, or lacked the ability, then it is a DFK.

 

[JAL456]

I have wondered about this. You see a lot of instances where an attacker is taking on a defender, is already running at some pace, knocks the ball past the defender and continues his run straight into the body of the defender and goes down. The defender hasn't done anything - they've just maintained their position but the attacker usually seems to get the decision.

 

[RyantheRef]

As I said, the defender is in no way required to move out of the way to let the attacker continue his run. It comes down to your interpretation of whether the defender has moved into space which was about to be occupied in order to stop the run, or if he was there and had a right to the space and the attacker just clanged into the back of him. Nota bene - you're going to get shouts either way.