Soccer 13/14 Law 12 - Goalkeepers and DOGSO-H

Recently the Ontario Soccer Association held its first RUG and PUG (Regional and Provincial upgrade groups) weekend at various locations around the province. At one of the sessions, an interesting question was posed to the group about what might happen when a goalkeeper handles the ball illegally to deny a goal.

Like many of the other decisions under the Laws of the Game, it is both complicated and incredibly simple, and to understand the reasoning behind the answer to the question, a brief history of the misconduct of denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity must be looked at.

Soccer 2013/14 Law 12 - Hanging off the crossbar (Updated)

Something that was brought up after the prior Law 12 discussion was how FIFA's Laws of the Game apply to a situation where a player hangs off the crossbar during the course of play. This player could, of course, be a goalkeeper, a defender, or even an attacking player.

So... what do we do? My immediate instinct is to blow the whistle and stop play, but why? There's nothing outright in the Laws of the Game for either soccer or futsal that directly discusses a player using the crossbar as an aid to play.

So where does that leave us?

Futsal 2012/13 Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct (as applies to the GK)

There's been an interesting discussion on twitter of late about futsal's Law 12, specifically as it applies to the indirect free kicks portion relating to the goalkeeper. The method currently taught in the CSA seems to be contradicted by what some higher level referees from Europe are stating.