Question Number: 19829

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 8/27/2008

RE: Rec / competitive Adult

Mike of Ottawa, Canada asks...

Law 15 -

Is there not the possibility of their being a hand ball by the thrower WHILE taking the throw? I'm curious about the following requirements of a lawful throw-in. (I tried your search parameters before wasting your time with this one, but to no avail... (one of those late nights reading through the laws... for fun of course))

Mechanics of a throw in (from Law 15):

1/ 'At the moment of delivering the ball, the thrower:
[.....]
has part of each foot either on the touch line or on the ground outside the touch line'

and

2/ [the thrower] 'delivers the ball from behind and over his/her head'

and

3/ 'The ball is in play immediately after it enters the field of play.'

4/ Law 9 considers the ball out of play (and conversely, 'in play') when 'it wholly crossed [...] the touch line whether in the air or on the ground'

Scenario: If a player taking a throw-in is standing with his/her heals on the inner edge of the touch line (with his/her feet ON the field of play) (and the heals remain on the touch line for the entirety of the throw); and considering that the ball is 'in play' when the ball crosses the outer edge of the touch line onto the field of play.....

Observation: Is it not a hand ball by the player taking the throw-in in the above scenario since the ball is physically in their hands and still above their head when the ball enters the filed of play?

Note: The player taking the throw would be handling the ball 'deliberately', as required in Law 12.

Just curious.

Regards

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

The throw is not complete until the ball enters the field of play [and has left the hands of the thrower] Law 15 is the governing statute here and it requires the thrower to use both hands! Law 12 applies once the ball is in play, not until. Note Law 15 still governs the thrower until another player touches the ball.

Your logic is unimpeachable and correct until one remembers it's a Simple Old Game. Things that complicated would not be left out of the Laws if the founders had meant it to be an infraction...

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Really, Mike! How can the ball be in play if it is still in the hands of the thrower? Logically, it can only be in play after it enters the plane of the field AND the ball has left the hands of the thrower. Any other construction would be totally senseless. Don't make trouble where there isn't any...

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

It goes without saying, and assumed by the authors of the Laws of the Game, that the ball is not in play on a throw-in until the ball has left the throwers hands.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The ball is in play when any portion of it has crossed the plane defined by the outside of the touchline, and has been released by the thrower. This is another 'one of those things that everyone knows' that IFAB, the writers and editors of the Laws, felt was not necessary to include in the text.