Question Number: 24376

Law 13 - Free Kicks 11/23/2010

RE: select Under 16

Hannah of North Vancouver, British Columbia Canada asks...

Our team was awarded a free kick. The ref placed the ball where he wanted us the take the kick.I take all the free kicks on our team. I picked to the ball to move it out of a divot. The ref told me i was not allowed to touch the ball. He said if i did that again i would be carded. Is this true?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Hannah
Not true. The referee should not place the ball but simply point out the location of the free kick. Perhaps what has happened here is that the referee may have been trying to organise defending player so that they are 10 located yards away from the ball. If the ball is placed for the free kick and it is then moved say away/closer than 10 yards then that is unfair and needs to be dealt with. Moving it a few inches out of a divot is here nor there and should not be questioned IMO.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Which part? If he said you'd get a card on a repeat, that's probably true - unfortunately.

If you meant the part about not moving the ball, there is really no need for a referee to threaten players about the spot on which the ball is to be placed for a restart. Assuming no time is being wasted, and assuming the spot of the placement is reasonable (anywhere within a foot of the 'spot' of the offense is reasonable), the referee doesn't need to intervene - and certainly should not be placing the ball herself! The referee can indicate the spot of the foul, but micromanaging the kick in this way creates bad feelings and buys nothing but trouble.