From :
https://www.fifa.com/mm/document/footballdevelopment/refereeing/02/36/01/11/lawsofthegameweben_neutral.pdfDirect free kick
A direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any of the following seven offences in a manner considered by the referee to be careless, reckless or using excessive force:
• kicks or attempts to kick an opponent
• trips or attempts to trip an opponent
• jumps at an opponent
• charges an opponent
• strikes or attempts to strike an opponent
• pushes an opponent
• tackles an opponent
A direct free kick is also awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any of the following three offences:
• holds an opponent
• spits at an opponent
• handles the ball deliberately (except for the goalkeeper within his own penalty area)
A direct free kick is taken from the place where the offence occurred (see Law 13 – Position of free kick).
Penalty kick
A penalty kick is awarded if any of the above ten offences is committed by a player inside his own penalty area, irrespective of the position of the ball, provided it is in play
This is my issues with penalties :
Firstly there's no mention of attempting to play the ball. This is understandable for some of these points, but for others, it completely removes any obligation for the attacker to be actually trying to score or control the ball in any way. They can act in any way they see fit to either provoke, simulate or lead the referee to believe that one of the conditions above has been met.
Secondly, it's left to the referee to consider if the defending player was careless or reckless or using excessive force which is interpretation and not deduction. Two different refs in the same position seeing the same event can interpret an event as being a penalty for Ref #1 or not being a penalty for Ref #2 and, by the laws of the game, both are correct because it's all down to interpretation.
Pundits keep going on about "well there
was contact" or "He gave the ref a decision to make" and technically they are correct. It doesn't matter if you, I, Shearer or the FA would consider an event to result in a penalty if the referee has a defensible position to say "Player #1 tripped/tackled player #2 in my opinion."
Dele Alli, Lallana, Salah and even that shocker in 2014 by Joe Allen were
all penalties because there is a moment in each that you can point to and say the defender pushed, tackled, held or tripped the attacker. Maybe not enough to get the reaction or flop that they generated afterwards but all defendable penalties from the ref's interpretation.
Neither Kane's nor Lamella's were penalties however as the first was offside and the second should have been a free for us for Lamella charging into Lovren.
