At one of my games last week, I experienced the fastest goal I have ever seen in my 54 years of refereeing. The away team lost the toss, so they had kick-off. They lined up in the usual way, with a player either side of the ball in the centre but when I blew my whistle, instead of one player touching the ball forward to the other to start the game, both players parted sideways from the ball. Another player standing just inside the centre circle ran forward and took a mighty kick at the ball.
I realised what was happening, which is more than I can say for the home team players. They all stood and watched as the ball sailed over the head of everyone, including the goalkeeper, who was off his line but not excessively so.
When the ball hit the back of the net, the away team, who had no doubt planned and practised this tactic and may have even tried it before, danced and hugged one another in celebration as if they couldn’t really believe that they had succeeded. The home team in contrast, stood still for a few seconds as if in shock and then looked for someone to blame.
Was it the goalkeeper for failing to stop one of the longest shots he was ever going to have to deal with? Was it the forwards who had not guessed what was going to happen? No, of course it was the referee. ‘They can’t do that,’ one said to me, ‘no one touched it first.’ ‘That’s no longer a requirement,’ I told them as I noted the score in my notebook, ‘the law allows a goal to be scored direct from the kick-off’.
Older readers who used to play the game may find this surprising as this wasn’t the case in their days. It was one of those subtle changes to the laws when they were re-written in 1997, so it shouldn’t have been a shock for players in their early twenties, although it has taken a while to sink in with some people. I remember when the BBC allowed Danny Baker to have a football programme on radio, he called a listener stupid when he suggested such a thing was possible, only to have to retract his rather offensive inaccuracy.
Everyone knows you can score direct from a corner but what about a goal kick? This was another of those unheralded changes in 1997.
It seems a little unlikely but goalkeepers seem to be able to kick the ball farther and father these days so I’m sure it will happen some time.
There are other recent changes that may have passed by
unnoticed. For a start, there is the toss-up itself. The team winning the toss no longer has the choice of taking kick off, they can only
choose ends. That was another change in 1997. In 2003 however, at kicks from the penalty mark to settle a game, the captain was given more choice - he can now elect to go first or second.
At throw-ins, since 2005 but still to some player’s surprise, opponents may not now stand within two metres of the
throw. At a penalty, if attacking players encroach before the ball is kicked and a goal is scored, the kick is retaken. But another change in 2005, now makes it an indirect free kick if the ball misses or is saved when attackers encroach.
Also in 2005, the restart when a referee stops the game if a substitute enters the field of play without permission, was changed from a dropped ball to an indirect free kick.
Sometimes referees are criticised for paying too much attention to the
written law but imagine the chaos that could occur if they didn’t keep up with the minor changes that happen with great frequency and little publicity.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2007