What is meant by an “own goal” in football?

Correct — C. An own goal is scored when a player puts the ball into their own team's goal. It counts for the opposing team.

The keyed wording says accidentally because that is the normal case, a deflection or a miscued clearance. The player is marked against it, but own goals are not added to that player's scoring total.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  A goal scored by a goalkeeper — A goalkeeper who scores in the opponents' net scores an ordinary goal. What makes an own goal is the net it enters, the scorer's own team's goal, not the player's position.
• (b)
  A goal scored from a penalty — A penalty goal is scored from a penalty kick at the opponents' goal, awarded for a direct free-kick offence inside the defending team's penalty area. It is not an own goal.
• (d)
  A goal scored during injury time — Injury time, the time added at the end of each half, decides when a goal comes, not whose goal it is. A goal in added time can be ordinary or an own goal.

Under football's Laws, a goal is scored when the whole of the ball passes over the goal line, between the posts and under the crossbar. The team credited is decided by which goal the ball enters.

That is why an own goal counts for the other side. It is marked "og" against the player who put it in, but it does not go into that player's goals tally.

Key facts

• An own goal is one a player puts into their own team's goal, and it counts for the opposition.
• Own goals are not added to the scoring player's personal goal total.
• A goal requires the whole of the ball to cross the goal line between the posts and under the crossbar.

Common traps

• Reading "own goal" as a goal scored by one's own goalkeeper.
• Confusing time added at the end of a half with extra time in a knockout match.

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