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August 15

Kopenhagen v. Crvena zvezda

Recently 22 kicks from the penalty mark were required to settle a nervy two-legged encounter between Danish and Serbian champion, respectively. A player from the home team, one of many who skied his effort as the penalty mark deteriorated, wondered in the aftermath as to why the referee never moved to the opposite goal. The 14th Law of the Game states that the goal may be changed only if it becomes unusable.

That's a very poor wording. Does "it" only include the goal, as in posts and net, or the mark as well? Splićanin (talk) 17:48, 15 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

They may have left it intentionally vague so that the referee would have discretion to decide if the goal area was unusable; listing any options would have likely left out some possibilities, which is why people making rules may not want to list options. --Jayron 32 17:59, 15 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

No, that's not the case. Splićanin (talk) 18:58, 15 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The wording with "it" is not what I find in the laws as provided on the FIFA site here. It says:

Unless there are other considerations (e.g. ground conditions, safety etc.), the referee tosses a coin to decide the goal at which the kicks will be taken which may only be changed for safety reasons or if the goal or playing surface becomes unusable

But deciding if the playing surface is unsafe or unusable is still going to be at the referee's discretion, isn't it? --76.69.116.4 (talk) 19:43, 15 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sorry, I was looking at a decade-old document. Thank you for clarification.

With that in mind, I'd say that the ref was at fault. Whenever a kicker placed his pivot foot next to the ball a moment before whacking it, the ball would noticeably move. I believe that was the reason for several Row Z efforts, as the kicking foot would either dig underneath the soft soil or make contact with the ball way off the intended spot because of the, well, landslide. Splićanin (talk) 20:31, 15 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

For the record, the match was 2019–20 UEFA Champions League qualifying phase and play-off round#Q3 C5.2. 8 of the first 14 kicks were missed but only 1 of the remaining 8. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:34, 15 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]