No tricks allowed from goal kicks

WHEN asked about any other changes to the laws this season, I said there were some obscure ones. However, there is one of them that is interesting, if only to show how they sometimes come about.

First we must go back to 1998 and the introduction of the law change that said a goalkeeper couldn’t handle the ball, if it was kicked to him by a team mate.

Some clever players learnt to flick the ball up with their feet and head it back to the goalkeeper to catch.

The law makers didn’t like this, so the following season, added to the law, a completely new cause, ‘a player must be cautioned (YC) if he initiates a deliberate trick for the ball to be passed to the goalkeeper with his head, chest, knee etc. to circumvent the law, whether or not the goalkeeper touches the ball with his hands’.

Now onto a couple of seasons ago, when the law on goal kicks was changed. The ball is in play now, when it was kicked and clearly moved.

No longer having to go outside the penalty area to be in play. The goalkeeper (or other player taking the kick) must not touch the ball again until it has been played by another player.

The sanction is an indirect free kick, unless the kicker who was not the goalkeeper, handled the ball. Then it would become a direct free kick.

Obviously remembering that earlier trick in an attempt to get around the law, someone said, ‘what if, the goalkeeper flicks the ball up at a goal kick to a nearby team mate, who heads it back to the goalkeeper to catch’.

The law makers hadn’t thought of this and initially said that the kick should be retaken but no sanction imposed.

However, this is now treated as a trick to circumvent the law and the changed law says that the goalkeeper should be cautioned and shown a yellow card.

The game is restarted with an indirect free kick.

I doubt if any of us will ever see this happen but it’s covered if it does.