Goalkeeper Handball Outside the Area

Outside their own penalty area the goalkeeper has exactly the same handling restrictions as any other player, which means the ordinary handball test applies to them and not a stricter one. A handball offence there is a direct free kick, and a sending-off where it denies a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.^2, ^3, ^5, ^9, ^10, ^11, ¹²

Key points

✓Outside their own penalty area the goalkeeper has the same handling restrictions as any other player⁹
✓Same restrictions means the same test: not every touch of the hand or arm with the ball is an offence, for a goalkeeper either^4, ⁹
✓What makes it an offence is deliberately touching the ball, or a hand or arm that has made the body unnaturally bigger^5, ^6, ⁷
✓A handball offence outside the area is a direct free kick, exactly as for an outfield player^2, ³
✓Deliberate handball that denies a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity is a sending-off wherever it happens, and the goalkeeper exception applies only inside their own area^10, ^11, ¹³
✓A non-deliberate handball offence outside their own penalty area that denies a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity is separately a sending-off^10, ¹²
✓The lines belong to the areas they bound, so the penalty area line is part of the penalty area¹
✓VAR reviews of these turn on the point of contact¹⁴

Read the full rule

Scenarios

Scenario 1

Goalkeeper punches the ball clear just outside the area

Red card

A goalkeeper races out and deliberately punches a through ball away, with the contact a yard outside the penalty area line. An attacker was clean through with no covering defender.

Correct call: Direct free kick and a red card. The touch was deliberate, so it is a handball offence, and it denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. The exception that protects a goalkeeper from a deliberate-handball sending-off applies only inside their own penalty area.

Common mistake: Reaching for an indirect free kick, or letting it go because goalkeepers handle the ball all the time. The privilege is bounded by the penalty area and nothing survives outside it.

Law^2, ^3, ^5, ^6, ^10, ^11, ¹³

Scenario 2

Ball strikes the goalkeeper's arm outside the area with no chance to react

No foul

A clearance is smashed at a goalkeeper who has come out of their area, and it hits their arm which is held in against the body. There was no time to move.

Correct call: Play continues. Outside the area the goalkeeper is judged on the ordinary handball test, and that test asks whether the touch was deliberate or whether the arm had made the body unnaturally bigger. Neither is true here, and not every touch is an offence.

Common mistake: Assuming a goalkeeper outside the area is automatically guilty of any hand or arm contact. The Laws say same restrictions as any other player, which is a limit as well as a removal of privilege.

Law^4, ^5, ^7, ⁹

Scenario 3

Goalkeeper catches the ball on the penalty area line

No foul

A goalkeeper catches a cross with their feet on the edge of the box and the point of contact directly above the painted line.

Correct call: Play continues. The lines belong to the areas of which they are boundaries, so the penalty area line is part of the penalty area and the goalkeeper is handling inside it.

Common mistake: Penalising because the goalkeeper looked to be on the edge. The line is inside, which is why these reviews come down to the point of contact rather than to how it looked.

Law^1, ¹⁴

The full rule

The goalkeeper's handling privilege stops at the edge of their own penalty area, and the Laws say what replaces it in one sentence: the goalkeeper has the same restrictions on handling the ball as any other player outside the penalty area. Same restrictions means the same test, and that cuts both ways. It is not automatically an offence for a goalkeeper's hand to meet the ball outside the area, because not every touch of a player's hand or arm with the ball is an offence for anybody. What makes it one is the ordinary handball test: deliberately touching the ball with the hand or arm, or touching it when the hand or arm has made the body unnaturally bigger, or scoring in the opponents' goal directly or immediately from it. A goalkeeper diving on a through ball a yard outside the line is almost always deliberate and therefore an offence, but the reason is the deliberateness and not the shirt they are wearing. The sanction is a direct free kick where the offence occurs. Where the handball denies the opposing team a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity, the goalkeeper is sent off, and the Laws reach that result twice over: a deliberate handball offence is a sending-off wherever it occurs, with an exception only for a goalkeeper inside their own penalty area, and a non-deliberate handball offence outside their own penalty area is a sending-off in its own right. Neither exception protects a goalkeeper who has left their area. On location, the lines belong to the areas of which they are boundaries, so the penalty area line is part of the penalty area, and VAR reviews of these incidents turn on the point of contact.^1, ^2, ^3, ^4, ^5, ^6, ^7, ^8, ^9, ^10, ^11, ^12, ^13, ¹⁴