Question Number: 27201

Law 8 - Start and Restart of Play 2/24/2013

RE: Youth football Under 12

Carl lambert of Ipswich, Suffolk England asks...

When taking a centre kick one of my players passed the ball diagonally forward to the left winger for him to run on to. The ref blew up and made us retake the kick! I asked him why, he replied ' you can't do that!'. Can you tell me why the ref did that as he did not give me a reason why! Many thanks. Carl.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

It is not clear what happened. The usual reason for a referee to order a kickoff to be retaken in these circumstances is that the left winger stepped into the opponent's half when he heard the whistle and before the kick was taken.

The whistle only indicates permission to begin. All players must be in their own half at the time of the kick.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Carl
Unless the left winger was in the opponents' half before the kick was taken then there is nothing wrong in that type of kick off.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

My colleagues have given suggestions of what might have been wrong. Sometimes players move into the other half before the kick, and if nothing comes of it the ref wouldn't call it as it is trifling. But when the ball goes to that advancing winger, then it wasn't trifling and it should have been called.

Unfortunately there are far too many refs who see something out of the ordinary, and decide that just because they didn't see it before, it must be wrong. Many kickoffs are taken by player A tapping the ball forward and player B kicking it back to the middies or defense to build an attack. The ref might have thought, for some odd reason, that was the required method of taking a kickoff.