(Hand Ball) 

A rule that is sometimes hard to understand. A couple of points

to clarify:

 
1 – The law for handling includes using any part of the body from the tips of

the fingers to the shoulder.

 
2 – The proper way to look at the law is that a player cannot “handle” the ball.

A ball that is kicked and hits a player’s hand or arm may not be handling. This

means that the referee must use their judgment to determine if it’s accidental

contact or if a purposeful attempt to “gain advantage” was used.
 
Put another way, the referee must determine if:
The ball hit the hand (legal)
The hand hit the ball (illegal)  

The basic concept is “gain advantage” if the referee sees the player directing the

ball with hand/arm movement it is handling. It is not handling if before the ball is

put into play for girls using their arms to protect their chest or boys to protect their

 groin. In other words, if the player puts their arm to their chest or hands over groin

 after the ball has been played; the referee should call handling. 
 
Penalty for handling – Direct Free Kick
 
Keeper pass-back rule – a keeper cannot pick up a pass that was kicked directly

from one of their teammates; they must use their feet.

 
Penalty for pass-back – Indirect Free Kick

 FOULS & MISCONDUCT

FOULS

In general, a player cannot kick, trip, jump at, charge, strike, and push, hold, spit at a

person or use foul language (attempts too many of these is just as bad). However,

bumping or going shoulder-to-shoulder while competing for a ball is not a foul until

the hands or elbows come up. This is a judgment call by the referees. If a player falls

down in the process of going for the ball  it may or may not be a foul, which is part of

soccer, the Referee has to decide was it done in a “careless” manner, if so it’s a foul.

There are two types of Free Kicks:

Direct Free Kick – A player can score by kicking the ball directly into the goal.

Indirect Free Kick – The ball must be touched by another player before it can go into

the goal. 

You can tell whether the Free Kick is direct or indirect by watching the Center Referee.

For an Indirect Free Kick the Center Referee will hold one arm straight up in the air

until the second person touches the ball. No arm up, it’s a Direct Free Kick. In general,

a Direct Free Kick comes from a contact foul or handball, you could say if it ends in

“ing” such as kicking, tripping, it’s usually a Direct Kick. Everything else is an Indirect

Free Kick. With a Free Kick the opposing team must stay at least 10 yards away from

the ball until it is kicked. Plus, any player may kick the ball.

Advantage -  A referee will often delay calling a foul to see if the fouled team maintains

"advantage" by yelling "play on" and sweeping his hands forward. Basically saying I saw

the foul but do not want to take away your advantage, if the advantage does not develop

he can bring the ball back and award a free kick. 

PENAL FOUL – The referee awards a Direct Free Kick to the other team at the point of

infraction. The first six are called only if the referee considers them done carelessly,

recklessly or with excessive force. A Penalty Kick (PK) is awarded if any of these are

committed in their own penalty area.

1 - Kicking

2 - Tripping

3 - Jumping at

4 - Charging

5 - Striking

6 - Pushing

7 - Holding

8 - Spitting on or at a person

9 - Deliberately handling ball (Hand Ball)

10 - Contacting opponent before the ball in slide tackling

TECHNICAL FOUL – The referee awards an Indirect Free Kick to the other team at

the point of infraction.

1 - Offside

2 - Preventing the opposing keeper from releasing the ball

3 - Impeding an opponent

4 - Keeper taking more than 6 seconds to release control

5 - Wasting time

6 - Keeper handling ball intentionally played by teammate

7 - Dangerous play effecting opponent such as a high kick

8 - Any offense not mentioned above where play is stopped for a caution (yellow) or

ejection (red), 

A player can not touch the ball twice in a row when putting the ball in play. You may see it

on kick-offs or free kicks where a player barely hits the ball and decides to take another

swipe at it, that is a two-touch. 

This rule also applies to throw-ins. A player cannot throw the ball in and then kick it. 

Penalty for two-touch – Indirect Free Kick 

PENALTY KICK

PK results from a penal “contact” foul or handball in the penalty area and is a type of

Direct Free Kick. 

The ball is placed on the penalty spot, 12 yards from the goal. The keeper must not

pass the goal line until the ball is kicked. 

After the ball is kicked, if it rebounds off the goal or keeper and stays on the field, the

ball is “live”. Anyone can play it if off the keeper, if off the goal due to two-touch rule

anyone but the kicker can play it.

 ** Typical Soccer Positions  **

referee signals

This is by far one of the least understood rules by parents and coaches alike.

First, it’s not offside if a player receives the ball directly from a corner kick, goal

kick or throw-in at the point the ball is put back into play. But, once the ball is touched

again you could be offside. Also, it is not offside for a player to simply be in the offside

position; the player must be involved in active play as determined by the referee to be

called offside. Plus, you cannot be offside if you are standing on your half of the field.

 
There are two parts to the rule:

 
1 – The player is in an offside position if they are nearer to his opponent’s goal line than

the ball or the second to last opponent. In other words you must have the ball or two

defenders (generally one is the keeper) between or even with you and the goal at the

moment the ball is touched by one of your teammates.

 
2 – You must be actively involved in the play. This is determined by the Referee.

You will see the AR running up and down the field. He is in line with the second to last

defender (not the keeper) or the ball. He is watching to see if an attacking player crosses

over that line to the goal and at the same time listening for the ball being kicked. If an

attacking player is between the last defender and keeper when the ball is touched the

attacking player may become offside if the attacking player becomes involved in the play.

Keep in mind the law applies when the ball is kicked, not when the player receives the

ball. So, an attacking player can be onside when the ball is kicked, she beats the

defender to the ball and goes to goal, this is not offside, she was onside when the ball

was touched and simply out ran the defender to the ball.