Question Number: 16556

Law 13 - Free Kicks 9/5/2007

Dave of Portland, OR USA asks...

Team A is down by a goal and the game is almost over, so they are in a rush to try to tie it up. Team A has a goal kick and both teams are running out of the penalty area. However, Team A takes the kick before a couple of the opponents have time to get out of the penalty area. If I understand the laws correctly, since the restart was not done properly, the ref should call it back and retake the kick. The ball never went into play, so the ref cannot call "advantage." Would it be a better idea for the ref to purposefully "not see" those opposing players? Is the choice between "not seeing" and retaking the kick just a matter of personal choice?

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

The key here is did the restart take place without any interference from the other team? So, if the ball was kicked from within the goal area and exited the penalty area unmolested by anyone, what purpose is served by having it retaken? From your description, this appears to be a trifling infraction of the Law and one which is thus suitably ignored in this case, assuming the referee is sufficiently knowledgeable and flexible to do so.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Law 13 requires opponents leave and remain clear of your penalty area when you're taking a free kick inside it. That doesn't mean you have to wait for them to take their sweet time leaving! It's the same thing as taking a quick free kick with opponents nearer than the required 10 yards. We allow players to decide if something is trivial to them in that instance, don't we?

Unless the ball touches a player before leaving the penalty area, us stopping things and requiring a "correct" restart is delaying their restart of play, isn't it? We come all unpuckered when a player does the same thing and then we caution his efforts, don't we?

We can't caution ourselves for doing the same thing, all we can do is not delay their restarting play if they want to get on with it.

Let's do it that way.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

While the Law requires all opponents to be outside the penalty area on any free kick coming out of the penalty area, the team taking the kick does not have to wait for them to leave. As long as the ball doesn't touch any player inside the penalty area before it leaves the penalty area, allow the kick to proceed. The Spirit of the Law should guide you in this. At best, this is a trifling infraction which you as the referee have the power to ignore

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 16583