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Law 9 - Ball In and Out of Play
The aim of this page is to recognise when the ball is out of play.
| 1. Ball is out of play: |
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| 2. Ball in play: | |
| 3. Diagram Ball In or Out of Play ? | |
| 4. Questions and Answers: |
1. Ball is out of play: Go Back to the Top of this Page
The ball does not necessarily have to leave the field of play (by travelling over the touchline or goal line) before it is deemed to be 'out of play'. The ball is also deemed out of play when the Referee stops play whilst the ball is on the field of play.
The ball is therefore always in play, except when it has left the field of play, or when the Referee stops play.
Law 9 is the smallest of all of the Laws - consisting of only 4 small paragraphs.
But there is plenty more on this page to help you. And lots of questions and answers.
The ball is out of play:
The whole of the ball needs to travel over the line to be out of
play.
Referees will on occasions, need to make decisions from some distance away. Players get very irate if they think that a Referee has made a wrong decision, especially when he is standing in the centre circle, i.e. when awarding a goal kick instead of a corner. Referees' decisions should be quick, strong and confident. Any hesitation will invite dissent!!! The nearer the Referee is to the incident, the greater credence he will have when making that decision. The trick is to keep running towards the incident, whilst blowing the whistle. By the time that the players look around, the Referee will be much closer, than where he was when he first made his decision.
Whilst the ball is out of play, a free kick can not be awarded for an infringement occurring during the time that the ball remains out of play.
The field of play is a three dimensional topless cube with invisible vertical planes rising upwards from the outside of the each touchline and the outside of the two goal-lines. So long as the ball stays within these invisible vertical planes or is in contact with one of these planes, it is not deemed to be out of play. It must entirely leave this three dimensional cube. A ball rolling along the outside of the touchline remains in play, so long as part of the ball is hanging over the plane of the touch line. A player may also run outside the touchline to play the ball, so long as the ball remains in play.
The Referee (aided by the Assistant Referees) is the sole judge as to whether a ball is in play or not.
If a foul takes place after the Referee has signalled (or decided) for play to stop, it cannot be considered as a foul, and must be dealt with outside of the play action itself. For example, if the Referee stops play for an offside, and before play has restarted, a defender standing in his own penalty area thumps an attacking player, the restart is still the indirect free kick to the defending team, given for the offside, and not a penalty to the attacking team (for the thumping offence).
Play is considered to have been stopped when a Referee's decision was made, and not necessarily when the Referee's decision is announced - there will always be a small delay between the Referee deciding to stop play and the Referee blowing his whistle. The Referee is the sole judge of when he has decided to stop play. Therefore no foul can be considered a foul if it occurs after the Referee has decided (in his mind) to stop play. A foul cannot occur after the ball has left the field of play.
Summary:
The ball is in play:
The ball is in play at all other times, including when:
NOTE- The boundary lines are part of the field of play. So a foul by a defender on top of a penalty area line is a penalty, as the foul is deemed to have happened inside the penalty area.
All the lines are part of the field of play, i.e. the penalty area includes the width of its boundary lines . The field of play is marked with lines. These lines belong to the areas of which they are boundaries. So if a defender commits a direct free kick offence immediately on top of his penalty area line, then a penalty is awarded to the attacking team. All the lines on the field of play, form part of the area boundary that they encompass. The ball only leaves any area of the field of play, when it has passed wholly over one of the boundary lines that encompasses that particular area. Therefore that ball remains in play when if it is positioned over the touchline or goal line.Summary:
The ball is out of play:
3. Diagram Ball In/Out of Play ? Go Back to the Top of this Page
It is therefore possible for the bottom of the ball (left
side) to be 'out of play' whilst at the same time the ball's trailing edge (right side) to
be in play". See middle Ball In Play diagram above.
4. Questions and Answers: Go Back to the Top of this Page
Additional Questions and Answers provided by FIFA covering all of the Laws of the game, can be found on this web site here. The original FIFA Questions and Answers pdf file can be downloaded from the FIFA web site here.
Question 1: Is it possible for a player to step outside the field of play, and still legally play the ball when it remains on the touch line or on the goal line or just inside the field of play?
Answer 1: Very often during a match, a player's momentum takes him outside of the field of play boundaries. This action is not done in an unsporting way, but is a continuation of the player’s momentum. This type of movement is not illegal. Players also stand outside of the boundaries when taking throw-ins, corners, free kicks and goal kicks. Players taking such action should not be cautioned for leaving the field of play without the Referee's permission. In the situation described above in question 1, only the position of the ball is relevant. Because the ball remains on the field, it is deemed to be still in play. A player is entitled to step outside of the boundaries, to control the ball, or to run to an advantageous position. It is the position of the ball, not the player's feet that are the important factors here.
Players may leave the field of play and re-enter it as long as this occurs during the normal course of play, and is part of the match action.
There are a few exceptions to this that Referees should be aware of. During a corner kick, players (particularly attacking players) are not permitted to cross the goal line between the goal posts (i.e. stand or walk behind the goal line under the nets themselves). This is tantamount to unsporting behaviour, and must be stopped before the corner is taken. If an attacker steps over the goal line between the goal posts, as the ball is in flight from a corner, the Referee should stop play. He has two options to restart the match.
(a) Caution the attacking player and restart with an indirect free kick to the defending team (Law 12 "An indirect free kick is awarded for any other offence not mentioned in Law 12,for which play is stopped to caution or dismiss a player".)
Or (b) Award a dropped ball, at the position that the ball was, when the Referee stopped play.
You can consider just awarding an indirect free kick to the defending team and a strong word to the perpetrator (instead of a caution) but this is not the correct method by the 'letter of the Law'. Albeit, that I have used the latter method on numerous occasions (under the auspices of Law 18 Common sense). Players will soon get the message after you have penalised them for taking such action - they will not do it again! So at least you will have educated the player.
Note: Players, managers, coaches and spectators should be at least a yard (1m) or more from the field of play boundaries, to allow room for players to play the ball near the touchline and to allow the Assistant Referees to judge whether the ball is in or out of play.
In order to be considered out of play, the entire ball must cross the line (either on the ground or in the air). If any part of the ball remains on the line, then it is still in play. As a result, you will often see players run out over the boundaries to tap a ball off of the line and back into play. In most cases, the Assistant Referee will decide if the ball has gone out of play or not.
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Question 2: Is the ball deemed out of play if any part of the ball overlaps the touchline or the goal line?
Answer 2: No. The whole of the ball must cross the line before it is out of play.
Question 3: If the ball bounces directly over the touch line without having been touched by a player during a dropped ball, what action should the Referee take?
Answer 3: During a dropped ball, the ball is only deemed to be in play when it has touched the ground and has been touched by a player. In this case, only one of the stipulations has occurred. The Referee should restart play by dropping the ball again, in the same position as before.
Question 4: What action should the Referee take if one of the teams refuse to take part in a dropped ball?
Answer 4: It is not necessary for a member of each team to be present at a dropped ball. The Referee should merely restart by dropping the ball to the participating team player.
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Question 5: Is it possible for the ball to be still in play if it curves out of play over the touchline in the air, and then curves back in before hitting the ground inside the field of play?
Answer 5: No. All the boundary lines extend upwards in a vertical
plane. If the ball crosses this vertical plane, it becomes out of play. The fact that the
curve of the ball, enables it to leave and then re-enter the field of play, does not
negate the fact that it has wholly crossed over the touchline (and is therefore out of
play.) This type of problem sometimes occurs during the taking of a corner kick, when the
ball curves out over the goal line, and bends back into the field of -play.
The Referee and his Assistants need to be vigilant to such possibilities happening.
| Question 6: When a ball is touching the line or when
its edge is still vertically over the line but not touching the line (even though the rest
of it is hanging outside of the line); is the ball out of play or is it still in play. Answer 6: To be out of play, the ball has to cross WHOLLY over the touchline or the goal line (either in the air or on the ground). In both the cases above, the ball is still in play. |
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Question 7: During play, a player asks (the Referee) to leave the field of play to receive treatment for an injury. Whilst he is in the process of walking off the field of play, the ball comes near him. He controls the ball and then shoots and scores a goal. Should this goal count, and what action should the Referee take?
Answer 7: Play does not need to be stopped for a player to leave the field to receive treatment for an injury. As the player had asked, and obtained permission from the Referee to leave the field of play - from that moment, he is not allowed to take any part in play until he has left the field of play, and has subsequently received a signal from the Referee to return. The goal should not count. The player should be cautioned for unsporting behaviour, and the game restarted with an indirect free kick to the opposing side, from the place that the player was when he touched the ball before scoring the goal.
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Question 8: During a play, the ball was seen to wholly cross the touchline, but the Referee did not blow for a throw-in, and allowed play to continue - even after protests from one of the teams. I thought that a throw-in was awarded when the ball wholly crosses over the touchline?
Answer 8: It is impossible for a Referee to always be 100 per cent certain if a ball has wholly crossed the touchline or not. There are many occasions during a match that the Referee is many yards away from the touchline, but is still required to make decisions on throw-ins.
It may be that this Referee was too far from play to be certain that the ball had crossed the line or not. Many of the decisions made by a Referee are based on judgement - sometimes he gets it right, and sometimes he gets it wrong. The final decision is always in the hands of the Referee, and he alone (with the help from any Assistant Referees) is responsible for starting and stopping play. If players are in doubt, they should continue playing and listen for the Referee's whistle. How many times have you heard players shouting to their colleagues "play to the whistle"?
Question 9: A team is awarded a throw-in. A player runs off the field of play, collects the ball, and is just about to take the throw-in, when a colleague signals that he will take the throw instead, and shouts, " I'll take it". The player holding the ball lobs the ball underhand to his colleague who is still on the field of play, and is making his way towards the touchline. Isn't this a foul throw, and shouldn't the throw-in be awarded to the opposition?
Answer 9: The original player is obviously not trying to cheat - this is an action that happens many times during a game. It is recognised by both Referees’ and players’, that this action is not in itself an infringement of the Laws.
Most Referees (and I would like to think that this is ALL Referees) recognises that the first player was not attempting a throw-in, but just passing the ball to his colleague to take the throw instead.
I suppose that it is possible that a Referee may consider the first action an attempted throw-in - but let's be honest, the Referee who does this is asking for trouble!
Question 10: When a foul occurs, is the ball out of play as soon as the foul occurs?
Answer 10: No. A Referee will very often allow advantage to keep the play flowing. The ball is only out of play when it wholly crosses the goal line or the touchline, or when the Referee stops play. The only time that a ball is out of play during a foul, is when the Referee has signalled for play to stop - usually by blowing his whistle very hard.
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Question 12: When a player takes a throw-in down the touchline and it eventually lands out of play without touching another player, (a) sometimes the Referee will ask for the throw-in to be retaken, and (b) sometimes he will award a throw-in to the opposing team - why is this?
Answer 11: (a) If the ball does not enter the field of play, then the throw-in must be retaken. The ball never crossed over the outside edge of the touch line but instead, travelled totally outside of the field of play.
(b) During a throw-in, the ball is deemed to be in play as soon as it enters the field of play (assuming that the thrower executed the throw-in correctly). If, (in the opinion of the Referee or the Assistant Referee) the ball initially enters the field of play (for example, at least some part of the ball crossed over the outside edge of the touch line), and then the ball curves back out of play wholly over the touchline, a throw-in should be awarded to the opposing team.
Question 12: When I was watching a match the other day, some restarts did not happen until the Referee had blown his whistle or signalled with his arm (or voice) for play to recommence, and at other times, players just carried on without any intervention by the Referee. Surely this is very confusing for the players?
Answer 12. No, not really. Players know that if the Referee wants to control restarts, then he will let players' know (either by using his whistle or by talking to them). For example, during the 'ceremonial' type free kicks near the goals, the Referee will orchestrate the taking of the free kick. This allows the defensive wall to position itself, and for the attacking team to discuss shooting tactics. This is now an accepted part of football. If a team takes a 'ceremonial' type free kick before the Referee has signalled, then the kick should be retaken. The Referee usually tells the players not to start (ceremonial free kicks) until they have received his signal, and he does this by tapping his whistle or pointing to it, indicating that players must wait for a whistle before executing the free kick.
The Referee is not advised to blow his whistle every time the ball goes out of play - if he does, he will annoy, not only the players, but everyone watching the game as well! As a default, players will automatically continue restarts if the Referee does not intervene. This allows the game to flow without undue stoppage or interference by the Referee.
Players are taught by coaches to quickly restart the game when it is to their team's advantage, and a scoring opportunity may be gained by an alert player who quickly puts the ball back into play with the appropriate throw-in or free kick.
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There are occasions when the Referee will need to signal with his whistle, for restarts of play, and some advice examples are shown below:
(a) If time allows, always try to blow your whistle to signal before a corner kick takes place. Corner kicks usually entail players of both sides needing to position themselves accordingly in a crowded goal area, and it is a nice touch by the Referee to use his whistle to signal this restart. There will be occasions when the Referee is not able to signal for a corner start (for example, when a quick corner is taken - the Referee should allow play to continue in this instance, without having recourse to his whistle.
(b) If the ball has travelled some distance away from the touchline (or goal line), and takes a few moments to be retrieved, or if a replacement ball has been called for - the Referee should use his whistle to indicate that the throw-in (or goal kick) may be taken. This allows players who have 'switched-off' to regain their concentration before play is restarted.
(c) The Referee should always blow his whistle to restart a match after a player has received treatment on the field of play.
(d) Referees are advised to blow their whistle during kick-offs from the centre spot.
(e) It is not essential to blow for dropped ball restarts - but the Referee may need to blow his whistle to attract attention of two willing participants.
(f) Always blow for the commencement of penalties or ceremonial type free kicks near the goal areas.
(g) If a team has a long-ball thrower, the Referee can blow for throw-ins by this player - this is because such a thrower can easily project the ball into the penalty area near the goal itself. It is a nice touch by the Referee to indicate the restart during these occasions - and invariably, the thrower will need to take a long run-up whilst making his throw, and will very often look to the Referee for a signal to commencement.
(h) Always signal with the whistle to restart play after a substitution has been made.
These are just a few examples where the Referee
needs to signal clear restarts - if you can think of any more, please 
me and
I will include them here on this page.
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Question 13: Immediately following a kick-off after a goal had been scored, and before the ball had left the centre circle, the Referee spots one of his Assistant Referees indicating an off-side flag occurrence before the goal had been scored. What action should the Referee take?
Answer 13: Law 5 states that:
"The Referee may only change a decision on realising that it is incorrect or, at his discretion, on the advice of an Assistant Referee, provided that he has not restarted play".
In this case, the Referee must allow play to continue, since he cannot change the decision to award a goal after play has restarted.
If the goal was awarded to the away team, I suppose the Referee will not get any free drinks at the clubhouse at the end of the match!!!! His Assistant might be lucky though?
Question 14: If the ball hits the frame of the goal and rebounds back onto the field of play - is the ball still in play?
Answer 14: Yes: For the ball to be out of play, it must wholly cross the goal line. In this case, the goal frame is inside of the field of play and the ball did not leave the field of play. Occasionally a ball will even roll along the crossbar of the goal frame and then fall back onto the field of play.
In a similar situation, if the ball rebounds off an Assistant Referee who is standing inside the field of play - play continues because the ball did not leave the field of play. The Referee and Assistant Referees (when they are on the field of play), the goal frame and the corner flags are all part of the field of play. The Referee is just like a stone on the field of play, and is merely part of the field of play. If the ball hits the Referee, play should continue just as if the ball bounced off the stone - and this includes when the ball bounces into the goal, it is a goal! (This is the main reason why Referees always stay outside of the goal area.)
But why was the stone on the field of play in the first place, surely the Referee should have spotted the stone in his pre-match field inspection!!!!!!
Question 15: If a match is being played on a field of play that doubles as an English Rugby football field, where the frames of the football goal posts extend and continue upwards from the crossbar for the Rugby posts, and the ball strikes the upper part of the post above the level of the crossbar, what action should the Referee take.
Answer 15: A football goal frame should not have goal posts extending above the level of the crossbar. The construction of football goal posts is covered in Law 1. Rugby type goal frames are not officially allowed to double up as football goal frames. The Referee should not have sanctioned playing on such a field of play.
If the ball strikes the higher goal post (that part of the post, which extends higher than the level of the crossbar) - and the ball rebounds back into play - what does the Referee do? Allow play to continue, or award a dropped ball? Or award a goal kick, or a corner? Phew........... just don't play it in the first place.
Except??????....... as kindly pointed out by Craig Allomes from Australia.....
" This is a very common occurrence in Australia, where soccer is not the dominant sport - particularly in schoolboy games on school ovals which have to double (or triple) up on sports. The accepted treatment is - ball is out of play, restart with a goal or corner kick as appropriate. Even more confusing is where a soccer field is located on a rugby and/or Aussie Rules field - there are a multitude of lines marked on the grass - usually all the same colour. Leads to a lot of confusion and drop balls !!"Many thanks to Craig for that interesting point.
I suppose we must not lose track of our origins. As a lad, all we needed to make a field of play was a couple of jumpers (sweaters) for goalposts. We did not worry about lines. Of course, the official answer will always be, that the field of play (including the structure of the goalposts) must conform to the Law 1 Field of Play regulations - but in real life, if you had the choice of playing a game on an unconventional field of play, or not playing at all - I know which I would choose!
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Question 16: (answers in brackets). Should the match be stopped and what is the restart when a ball that is just about to leave the field of play over the touchline is:
(a) Picked up and handled by a player on the field of play. (Direct free kick to opposing team, possible caution for the player who picked the ball up).
(b) Picked up by one of the substitutes who is watching the game, but decides to come onto the field of play and pick the ball up. (This is outside interference. Dropped ball restart and possible caution for the substitute).
(c) Picked up by the manager/coach of one of the teams. (This is outside interference. Dropped ball restart and a strong 'telling-off' for the manager/coach). If it happens again, report the manager/coach, and ask them to leave the vicinity of the field boundary.
(d) Hits the cold water bucket that just happens to be on the touchline itself, and rebounds back into play. (This is outside interference. Dropped ball restart and a 'telling-off' to whomever left the bucket on the touchline.
(e) Rebounds back into the field of play off of the Assistant Referee's leg. (Nothing. Play continues, since the ball did not leave the field of play - but the Referee should advise his Assistant (after the game or at half time or discretely during the remainder of the match) to keep out of the field of play when the ball is near him.
(f) Burst or becomes deflated. (Dropped ball restart).
(g) Picked up by the 3-year-old daughter of one of the player's. (This is outside interference. Dropped ball restart).
In all of the above situations, the Referee must take steps to make sure that it does not happen again.
Question 17: During the taking of a corner kick, the ball strikes the near goal post and rebounds back into the field of play, but the Assistant Referee is seen to raise his flag to indicate that the ball was out of play. The Referee blew his whistle to stop play. I thought that the goal post was part of the field of play; why was play not allowed to continue?
Answer 17: The ball had probably curved wholly over the goal line and then curved back into play before it hit the goal post. Play was stopped because it completely left the field of play after it was kicked and before it struck the goal post. The Assistant Referee was correct, and the restart is a goal kick.
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Question 18: The ball rebounds back into play from the halfway line flag post. What action should the Referee take?
Answer 18: Award a throw-in to the appropriate team. The flag posts should be situated not less than 1 metre (1 yard) outside the touchline - therefore the ball must have travelled outside of the field of play.
If the flag posts had been placed incorrectly, and were positioned on the touchline itself, then a dropped ball should be awarded for outside interference. The Referee should ensure that the flag posts are positioned correctly, before allowing play to continue.
Question 19: If the ball hits me when I am Refereeing what should I do?
Answer 19: Law 9 (Ball in and out of play) states that the ball remains in play “if it rebounds off either the Referee or an Assistant Referee when they are on the field of play.”
Whenever you are Refereeing, try to think of yourself as a part of the actual field of play
(think of yourself as either a piece of mud or grass!) so if the ball hits you, play continues as if the ball had only hit a lump of mud or a divot of grass. Sounds a bit weird, but if you can latch onto that concept, you’ll never forget it!
The worst that can happen to you is if the ball hits you during play, whilst you are on the field of play, and then goes immediately into the goal! The goal would have to count. This is why you never see Referees anywhere near the goal area when they are officiating (for instance, during corner kicks!).
End of Ball out of Play page
