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Question Number: 15164

Law 5 - The Referee 4/12/2007

RE: Rec Under 14

Jason Martinez of Fort Worth, Texas USA asks...

Is there one rule that deals with how to handle an "outside interference" of play? For instance if a ball from another field flies into my field and disrupts two players both attempting to gain control, is this treated differently than if the ball were to directly interfere with an attacking player on a clear break-away?

This is a very helpful site and I appreciate the assistance.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Hi Jason. If ANYTHING enters the field and is interferring with play, you should stop play and deal with it. Rarely do soccer balls from another field cause any major disruption, but if they do, you should stop play. The restart will be a dropped ball at the spot the ball was when you stopped play. The exception is at a penalty kick where if there is outside interferrence before the ball touches the crossbar, goalpost or keeper, the kick is retaken. Keep in mind that there is no requirement that ANYONE participate in a dropped ball much less both teams. You can partially make up for loss of advantage by quickly dropping the ball to the team that was in control. If 2 opponents were contesting the ball when interferred with, you can drop to both teams



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Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

If you want, you can stop the game and resume with a drop ball wherever ball was when play was stopped. The LOTG allow us to use a drop ball restart whenever a stoppage is necessary, but is not included in the LOTG.



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Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

The "rule-of-thumb" I use is this: does it bother the players? If so stop play and restart with a dropped ball. If not take care of the problem as soon as possible.

On the penalty kick the ball must reach the goal or the keeper for it to be fairly taken, if not the penalty is redone.

Regards,



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Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

There is no need to stop play unless the thing that is an outside agent is acutally causing a disturbance in the match. In that event a dropped ball is required subject to the special circumstances described in law 8.

If the interference occurred at a penalty kick BEFORE the ball has made contact with either goalpost, the crossbar or the goalkeeper then the kick must be retaken. If the interference occurs after the ball has touched any of those things then a dropped ball must be awarded subject to the special circumstances of law 8.



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