Question about penalty call in CIS game

[argofandave]

I was watching the Laval at Sherbrooke game on CBC French and was surprised by a penalty call. One of Laval's kickoffs was boucing towards the sidelines when one of the Sherbrooke players touched it but never had control of the ball. The player then stepped out of bounds then came back onto the field and picked up the ball which stayed in bounds. I don't understand French but I know that Sherbrooke got called "illegal participation" and Laval was awarded the ball where the Sherbrooke player had picked up the ball after coming back onto the field of play. I was very surprised that Laval was awarded the ball. Was this the right call in the CIS? Would the call be the same if it happened in the CFL? I've never seen this play before.

[ArgoGabe22]

Should only be a 10 yard penalty (on offence, not sure about ST) unless the guy who picked it up then put the ball down and Laval recovered it????

[ArgoRavi]

On a kickoff though it is a live football so I could see why Laval would be awarded the football in that case.

[1argoholic]

Guess you'll have to take French lessons. haha. Laval would have had to recover the touched ball regardless of what the Sherbrooke player did. I'm not ref but that doesn't sound right to me.

[ArgoRavi]

Guess you'll have to take French lessons. haha. Laval would have had to recover the touched ball regardless of what the Sherbrooke player did. I'm not ref but that doesn't sound right to me.

I am guessing that the ruling here though is that the ineligible Sherbrooke player grabbed the ball thus preventing Laval from being able to recover the ball therefore it should be Laval football. It would be similar if there was an offensive play with a fumble because the ball would be live for any player in that instance just as it was in this one (a kickoff).

[AngeloV]

Pretty sure the rule is similar to that on offence where a player that goes out of bounds can't be the first to touch the ball in play. It would be an illegal participation penalty. The link below has Tom Higgins explaining something to that regard.

http://www.cfl.ca/article/illegal-participation-mtl-vs-cgy

[argofandave]

Thanks for the help. I wish that Tom Higgins still answered questions about calls on the CFL website.