Question Number: 29762

Law 13 - Free Kicks 10/1/2015

RE: Competitive Under 12

JR Caesar of Long Beach, CA United States asks...

After a foul about 25 yards from the goal, the attacker three times asks the referee for distance as the defenders are standing about 6 yards away. Three times the referee denies the request.

'Can you move them back?' 'No.' 'Can you give me distance?' 'No.' 'They are too close can you move them?' 'No.'

Beyond the fact the attacking team has the right to 10 yards, can the referee deny a request to move the wall back?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi JR,
all I can do is shake my head and offer my condolences for having an obstinate official referee your match? I am without explanation unless your 6 is his ten? I can only hope he was equally lenient with your wall on the free kicks? A word to those who are in charge of your league for an explanation and a review of procedure at free kicks ? 10 yards is the MINIMUM distance a team MUST withdraw.
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi JR
This plainly should not have happened. At a free kick the defending team must be 10 yards. If a quick free kick is taken then the 10 yards requirement is foregone.
If the kicking team requests 10 yards then 99.9999 of referees will accede to that request.
All I can think of is that the referee believed that your 6 yards was in fact 10 yards. It is why most referees pace the distance so as to prevent argument. I have on a number of occasions had my distance judgement away from goal when not paced questioned by kickers. Rather than confront on it I then paced it out. Guess what?

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi JR,

This is a strange one. It could be that the referee thought they were already back 10 yards, but if so I'd expect he would have said that. On plenty of occasions I've had the attacking team try to argue that the defenders were only back 5 yards (and invariably, the defenders were convinced I had moved them back 15 yards!). Usually I'd say something to express that I was happy with the position. So it could be that the referee - correctly or incorrectly - thought they were back 10 yards and didn't express himself very well.

Sometimes I've had scenarios where a defender is about 7-8 yards away from the ball ,but behind or otherwise not going to be involved in play and it's obvious the attacker is making an issue purely to waste time. Some referees will oblige, some will just tell them to get on with it. That may be a possibility here - of course that's not the case if the defenders in question are the ones between the ball and the goal.

Aside from that, as you stated yourself, the attacking team has the right to 10 yards.