Thursday, September 19, 2013

Goalkeepers handling the ball twice

This week of UEFA Champions League surely offered many interesting situations to analyze - among others in Stadio Giuseppe Meazza involving AC Milan, Celtic Glasgow and German referee Wolfgang Stark's team.


In the 16th minute of play, AC Milan goalkeeper Abbiati touched the ball with his hand twice in a row without an opponent touching the ball in between:


The Laws of the Game clearly state that "an indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a goalkeeper, inside his own penalty area, commits any of the following four offences:
• controls the ball with his hands for more than six seconds before releasing it from his possession
• touches the ball again with his hands after he has released it from his possession and before it has touched another player
• touches the ball with his hands after it has been deliberately kicked to him by a team-mate
• touches the ball with his hands after he has received it directly from a throw-in taken by a team-mate"

Wolfgang Stark therefore correctly applied this quite technical law and, what was even better, he calmly and clearly explained his decision to the players. Fourth Official Christoph Bornhorst did so, too, explaining it to the Italian coach, while Balotelli was enlightened by AAR1 Marco Fritz. Stark even tried to warn Abbiati before he touched the ball for the second time - but without success.
I don't know whether you have comparable situations having happened in other matches in mind, but basically this surely does not happen in 1 or 1000 matches.

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