Question Number: 19993

Law 16 - Goal Kick 9/18/2008

Chris of Smyrna, TN USA asks...

During a goal kick, once the ball is placed by the kicking team, can it be picked up and moved to another spot within the goal area before the kick is taken?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Chris,
within reason but referees tend to take a dim view of delayed restarts. You might get rebuked with a 'GET on with it!' as there is no real reason to respot the ball on the initial try but if you repeatedly tried it then a caution show a yellow card is a guarantee!
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Teams have a bad habit, especially in younger or in less experienced leagues, of putting the ball down on one side of the goal area, seeing the other team move to that side, so they then think they can pick up the ball and move it to the other side of the goal area and get a different result. As often as not it is coaching error.

Once the ball is spotted, it needs to be left there until kicked - moving it unnecessarily opens a team to a delaying the game misconduct, with carries a yellow card. Changing the spot had best have a very good reason, which does NOT include trying to outfox the other team. Finding the ball has been placed on a fire ant mound, or has rolled into a field depression hidden by grass would be an acceptable move.

It's a silly caution to take, when spotting the ball correctly and carefully the first time is a no brainer.

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