Question Number: 31708

Law 8 - The Start and Restart of Play 8/15/2017

RE: Under 8

Tom Smith of Tura, QLD Australia asks...

Player on Red team is about to have a shot, another ball enters field and ref calls for a drop ball, A player from blue team is about to kick the ball back to their opposition. I have many questions
1. Can a player from attacking team contest the drop ball if he likes

2.Can the player taking the kick pass backwards (unsportsmanship)

Also, If the ref does a drop ball in the box to the keeper can the keeper pick it up with his hands straight away?

PS Love this website, It feels good knowing that there are people I can rely on to help me!

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Short answer to all your questions, 1, 2 and 'Also', is yes.

The referee has no authority to decide what happens at a dropped ball, who may participate, or where the ball should be kicked.

There are some who say that if a team indicates they will kick the ball back to their opponents but then fail to do so, it is unsporting behavior. That's not because they are required to give the ball back, but because they said they would do so and deceived their opponents by not doing it.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Tom
Thanks for the questions and glad to help.
The first point is that play should only be stopped if the second ball actually interferes with play. If there is no interference then play on.
In the respect of your three questions the answer is Yes to all three
1 On any dropped ball any player or number of players can participate
2. The referee has no control as to what happens when the ball touches the ground as it is in play. One would like to think that fair play would prevail yet unfortunately that does not happen every time. There are loads of examples of unpleasant situations where the ball was not given back when expected to. The only thing that cannot happen is a goal being scored from a dropped ball. If that happens it is a goal kick restart
3. The goalkeeper can use his hands to touch the hall inside the penalty area yet that is only likely to happen in an uncontested dropped ball situation where the GK can pick the ball up. It would be unwise though to put a hand down where a player is kicking the ball.