Professional foul Professional foul In various sports, a professional foul is a deliberate act of foul play intended to bring about an advantage for the perpetrator's team. Professional fouls are usually committed to prevent an opponent from scoring. In association football, a professional foul involves a defender fouling an attacking player in order to prevent them from scoring, or a handball offence that denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. The resulting free kick or penalty may offer the attacking team a lower chance of scoring than the original playing position, and the defending player therefore has an incentive to tactically foul the attacking
Professional foul player or use their hand. The offence is popularly but inaccurately referred to as the "last man" foul, leading to the incorrect belief that if a defender is the last member of the defending side and in a position to stop an attacking player with an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and he does so, he should automatically be sent off. This so-called "last man" is typically the defender in front of the goalkeeper but it can be the goalkeeper. However, the terminology "last man" has never been included in the Laws of the Game. Under the Laws of the Game, what