# In soccer, what happens if a defender is fouled in his own goal area? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** football-soccer-fifa\ **Created:** [November 26, 2025, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-soccer-what-happens-if-a-defender-is-fouled-in-his-own-goal-area/1025157 "2025-11-26T17:50:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2025, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-soccer-what-happens-if-a-defender-is-fouled-in-his-own-goal-area/1025157/21 "2025-11-28T16:59:06Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Wait wait wait. They calculate distance in yards, not meters, in soccer? Yes, that is the reason the goal has a width of 7.32 m and a height of 2.44 m. Eight yards by eight feet are the original, much rounder sounding numbers. Numerous other lengths and widths in football make more sense in the outdated units: the penalty area is know in German as the 16 m area, but it is 18 yards (and actually it is 16.5 m - in Spain it is called the _big area_), the penalty spot is 12 yards away from the goal line, but it is known as the eleven meter point in German (or the fatidical point in Spanish šŸ˜) and so on. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2025, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-soccer-what-happens-if-a-defender-is-fouled-in-his-own-goal-area/1025157/22 "2025-11-28T17:08:33Z")
George Washington: We will have our own system of weights and measures. 12 inches will be a foot. Three feet will be a yard. And 5,280 feet will be a mile. Soldier: Sir, how many yards are in a mile? George Washington: No one knows. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2025, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-soccer-what-happens-if-a-defender-is-fouled-in-his-own-goal-area/1025157/23 "2025-11-28T17:10:33Z")
Presidents got better and better at division with time. Progress! ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2025, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-soccer-what-happens-if-a-defender-is-fouled-in-his-own-goal-area/1025157/24 "2025-11-28T17:16:03Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Same here in the States. We use metric for things like medicine (so many milligrams in your pill) or liquor (750 ml bottles of wine), and other applications, and imperial for most of the rest. When I studied physics in high school, everything was in metric and it made so much sense. I wish that the whole country used metric and that I was raised on it so that it was intuitive. But the effort to reform the entire country and every industry and institution, as well as the difficulty for each resident, it seems insurmountable. And the system as we have it works well enough. Itā€™s difficult to justify the change. There are many other problems that should take priority. Iā€™m sure those are also the exact same reasons why football/soccer has stuck with imperial measurements as well. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2025, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-soccer-what-happens-if-a-defender-is-fouled-in-his-own-goal-area/1025157/25 "2025-11-28T17:49:17Z")
This is certainly a topic for another thread, but this American also wishes weā€™d switch to the metric system. And it would be extremely easy to do: just do it. Thatā€™s it. Just tell Americans that weā€™re going full metric on [date], and thatā€™s it. Donā€™t half-ass it like we did in the late 70s/early 80s. Replace all interstate signs with distance in kilometers (not kilometers AND miles), replace mile-markers with kilometer-markers, require gas stations to sell by the liter, yada yada yada. Tell Americans to either figure it out or get left behind. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-soccer-what-happens-if-a-defender-is-fouled-in-his-own-goal-area/1025157/26 "2025-11-29T06:24:53Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > When I studied physics in high school, everything was in metric and it made so much sense. I wish that the whole country used metric and that I was raised on it so that it was intuitive. Itā€™s meant to make sense. The entire system is based on the kilogram which is the mass of one liter of water at its maximum density (which occurs at roughly 4 degrees Celsius.) 1 liter = 1000 milliliters. 1 milliliter = 1 cubic centimeter. And the metric system formed the basis of SI units which are used for most measurements in scientific applications. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-soccer-what-happens-if-a-defender-is-fouled-in-his-own-goal-area/1025157.md?page=1)