I have a couple of quick questions on interpretting the LOTG that have come up in my first few weeks of reffing. I have separated them into different threads as I thought they might useful to other new referees. Several times now, I have stopped play for minor injuries when the keeper has gained possession of the ball. I believe the correct restart is a dropped ball in the penalty area and I do not allow the attacking team to contest the dropped ball. The keeper always asks "Can I pick it up". My assumption is yes, once it hits the ground. Please confirm.
#1People are going to tell you you must let the other team contest the ball. I dont agree. There is nothing in the laws that says ANYONE must participate at all. #2There is nothing in the laws that says the keeper cant pick up a dropped ball.
After having a goalkeeper scramble to kick a dropped ball, I tell the keeper he can catch the ball before dropping it to him. It keeps you both out of trouble.
You mean after it hits the ground, right? If he "catches" the ball before it hits the ground, it was never in play.
Jarrett, To answer your original question, yes the keeper can pick it up once it hits the ground. What Grey is referring to in his #1 is this... You can't prevent the other team from participating in the drop ball -- if they insist on being there. However, if you explain the situation to them on what you are doing -- you will rarely find a kid stubborn enough to stay there. As an example, yesterday I stopped play for an injury to a blue player. The ball was in possession of a white player but he was under pressure. Of course since this was their first game since high school, they're all saying it's their kick because they had posssesion (high school rule). I said, not in USSF, it's always a drop ball no matter what. So once the injury was taken care of and I was ready to drop the ball, I turned to the blue player and said "Do you want to back off and let me just drop it to him or do you want me to drop it to you and play it back to their defense?" He chose to play it back to their defense and things proceeded smoothly. Another thing you can do in the situation with a goal keeper is to just walk up and do the drop ball to him quickly without giving the other team time to be involved. Either way works fine. One thing you can do to facilitate this is while the coach is on the field attending to his injured player, just amble over and stand next to the keeper and tell him what you're going to do. "Ok, when we restart, I'm going to drop the ball and you can pick it up and punt it." If you're dealing with boys over about U14 -- you might want to add "Give me a few seconds to get up the field before you punt it" so that you're back in position.
Of course , he'd have to be real quick to catch the ball before it hits the ground when I bounce it to him.