Question Number: 30477

Law 13 - Free Kicks 6/3/2016

RE: Competitive Adult

Trever of Moncton, New Brunswick Canada asks...

We conceded a foul just before the half way mark and the ball went out of bounds. They were awarded a free kick but shot directly on goal and the goal was counted. I always thought that if the ball left bounds then it had to touch another player. Is this the case? What is the ruling on direct vs indirect?

Thank you!

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Trever,

I'm not entirely clear on the scenario.

Direct versus indirect is simply the type of offence. Nothing else. Most fouls (tripping, holding, pushing, charging, kicking, deliberate handling, etc) are a direct free kick. Playing in a dangerous manner or impeding the progress of an opponent are indirect. Offside is indirect, as are the technical keeper offences (holding it too long, handling after deliberately kicked to him/her by a teammate, etc).

As to ball in/out of play:-

- if the 'foul' occurs after the ball left the field then the restart is the throw in / goal kick/ corner kick. No matter how severe the incident is, because the ball was out of play first it doesn't count as a foul. Can still result in a yellow or red card if severe enough

- if the foul occurred while the ball was in play but the ball then went out before the referee stopped play, then the timing of the foul is what's important. We can still go back to the free kick because the offence occurred while in play - doesn't matter that the referee may have been slow on the whistle or waiting to see if advantage would accrue.

I can't think of any other possible scenario, but feel free to respond if I've missed something important to your situation.

Also, the referee will signal an Indirect Free Kick by raising his arm above his head until the ball is touched by a second player (though if that happens and it quickly goes into the net he may not have time to drop his arm. That is unimportant). And if you're not sure, you can always ask the referee as well. The vast majority of free kicks that aren't for offside are direct free kicks though.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
There are two types of free kicks. Direct and indirect. Direct free kicks are awarded for what is called penal fouls which are listed in Law 12 , fouls like tripping, pushing, pulling etc committed against opponents and of course deliberate handling. Indirect free kicks are awarded for what is called technical fouls such as offside, impeding, playing in a dangerous manner. A goal can be scored directly from any direct free kick restart whereas on indirect ones it must touch other player to be in play so no direct score from the kick is allowed. In your case a foul was committed and the ball went out of play. That happens regularly on fouls near a boundary line. Play stopped the moment the referee awarded the foul. What happened the ball after that was irrelevant. The restart for that foul was likely to be a direct free kick so there was no reason why a goal should not be scored directly from that type of free kick.
In respect of the ball that goes out of bounds the only restart where a goal cannot be scored directly from is a throw in. A goal can be scored against the opponents directly on a corner kick, goal kick and kick off which are all out of bounds restarts.