Question Number: 16519

Law 13 - Free Kicks 9/1/2007

RE: Rec Adult

John Montalbano of Middletown, NJ USA asks...

Law 13 states - "if a direct free kick is kicked directly into the team's own goal, a corner kick is awarded to the opposing team"

What is the official reasoning for this?

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Any statement in the Laws of the Game is the official reason. However you seem not to understand so I attempt an answer. Prior to the General rewrite of the Laws in 1997 Law XIII offered this:

Free-kicks shall be classified under two headings: "direct" (from which a goal can be scored direct against the offending side) and "indirect" (from which a goal cannot be scored unless the ball has been played or touched by a player other than the kicker before passing through the goal. This wording was consistent from 1937 to 1996. It offered some readers difficulty in determining what happened if the ball went directly into your own goal from your free kick or directly into the opponent's goal from your indirect free kick.

Many referees could figure out the restart if the ball passed over the goal line under the crossbar and between the posts and a goal was not scored in accordance with Law X [10 today]. Those referees knew the answer was who touched it last and either gave goal kick or corner kick. For them it was easy. The others needed extra help. in 1997 the extra help came into Law 13 and it has been there ever since.

You'll note that a team cannot score against itself on any restart of play. This is not in the Laws of the Game but, never-the-less, it is as true as can be. In America Advice to Referees states this so referees have a little more help in sorting out things.

You can believe the Laws or understand the History and Traditions of The Game. Here at AskTheRef we pride ourselves in doing both.

I hope your question is answered to your satisfaction.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

This is just part of the laws. One would assume that the goal would count, but the laws say otherwise.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Think about it. The game is about Fair Play. If for some odd reason, the ball ends up in the goal directly from a kick given FOR a team (goal kick, corner kick, free kick), isn't that against the entire spirit? And the reasons for this type of occurrence are always weird - the wind catches it and blows it in, it is miskicked or shanked, it hits a hole or bump on the field and goes astray, etc. So, we (the imperial we - meaning all referees and FIFA) go with standard format for when a ball leaves the field last touched by a side, which would be a corner kick for the opposing team, because that seems the fairest thing to do. It's not the same as when a team scores an own goal, because the ball is in play and open for anyone to play, unlike the restarts. Hope that helps?

Answer provided by Referee Nathan Lacy

Some very nice comments above. The game is all about scoring goals and to the maximum extent feasible - REAL goals. I can assure you that as refs we just hate to see goals allowed that are the result of flukes, aberrations, outright botched events. We hate to see these because the game is all about the beauty of putting together a series of passes and such that results in the glorious event of a goal being scored. While the exact logic that was used in establishing this law is difficult to deconvolute I think that we can all agree that it truly serves the "spirit of the game" and what goals are all about. All the best,

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Just remember that a team cannot score on itself directly on ANY restart they have