It is not often that I get asked a question on the laws of the game by the chairman of a Coca-Cola Championship club but that's what happened when John Madejski was guest speaker at the September meeting of the Reading Referees' Association.
Before he started his talk, we were chatting about the game the previous Tuesday against Crystal Palace, which he described as the best he had seen since the stadium opened. He confessed, however, that he was a little concerned whether the taking of Reading's penalty was strictly legal.
For those of you, who like me, missed this apparently epic match, let me relate what happened. A penalty was awarded in Reading's favour but Palace goalkeeper, Gabor Kiraly, saved the kick. However, he was adjudged to have moved off his line too early, so the kick had to be retaken, with Reading deciding to change their kicker. According to Mr Madejski, someone from the FA who was in the
Directors' box, said that the referee shouldn't have allowed that to happen.
It just goes to show that you can't always believe what someone from the FA says.
To be fair, Law 15 - The Penalty Kick - is a little complicated. There are so many variations, a whole page in fact, of which the referee must be aware. What to do if the defending side offends after he has blown the whistle, or if the attacking side offends and what the difference is if the ball goes in the goal, or not, or if the kick is saved.
But back to the Reading penalty kick. John Madejski can relax. Nowhere does it say that the kicker can't be changed. Indeed, Palace could have changed their goalkeeper, although it was a good job for them that they didn't, as Kiraly saved the second kick as well.
This season, there has actually been a change to the law on penalty kicks that seems to have had the effect of confusing at least one referee. Although it corrects an oversight that has languished in the laws for many years, by coincidence I only became aware of it myself last season.
Let's look first at what should happen if a team-mate of the kicker encroaches into the penalty area before the kick is taken and a goal is scored. The law says the kick must be retaken. But what if a goal is not scored? All the law said was, 'The kick is not retaken'. If the ball goes over the goal line outside the goal, there's no problem, it's a goal kick. ' 'But what would happen,' asked a candidate on our referees' training course, 'if the goalkeeper saved it, pushing it round the post. Would it be a corner?' I had to admit that, unfair though it was, that is what the law implied.
This had obviously occurred to someone further up the refereeing chain than me, for this year it has been changed to read, 'If, after the referee has given the signal for the penalty to be taken and before the ball is kicked, a team-mate of the kicker enters the penalty area and the ball does NOT go into the goal, the referee shall stop and
restart with an indirect free kick to the defending team.
This change may have been the cause of a mistake by Japanese referee, Toshimitsu Yoshida, who refereed the World Cup qualifying match between Uzbekistan and Bahrain. Uzbekistan converted a penalty but it was disallowed because one of their players encroached. Instead of retaking the penalty, which would have been the right decision, the referee restarted with an indirect free kick to the defending side. Because of that, FIFA decreed the match invalid and it has to be replayed.
Just goes to show that FA representatives are not the only ones who can get confused over the law on penalty kicks.
Dick
Sawdon Smith