Question Number: 30236

Law 17 - Corner Kick 4/3/2016

RE: Competitive Under 14

Vicki Hayward of Nottingham , UK asks...

What should the referee do if a player takes a corner, kicks the corner flag and therefore scuffs her kick. The ball went a few yards. She ran to pick it up and took the corner again. What should the referee have done?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Vicki,
at the wee level we often permit a do over as a teaching moment, although once we are 11 versus 11 we treat a mistake, well, as a mistake! We do not reward mistakes, there are consequences on a poorly taken corner or any free kick if the ball does not go to where the player intended that is part of the game. The exception being the goal kicks or free kicks coming out of a defending penalty area which as you NOW know from your earlier question the kick is retaken if the ball does not clear the PA boundary lines into the FOP!

A proactive referee might call out, 'The ball is IN play you cannot touch it!' BEFORE she does to assist as a learning for youth but the truth is the handling is a DFK from where she picks the ball up NOT an INDFK for a 2nd touch because we punish the more severe foul. Not that the type of restart is of huge concern as the location of the foul is a long way from the opposing goal on the far end of the field some 100 plus yards away! lol

I have on a few odd occasions recognized a miss kick or a slip as a result of bad weather, wind moves ball as they go to kick or they fall and stumble kick on a particularly slippery pitch or catch a divot hole or get stuck in mud, recognized the prudent thing was to say 'JUST retake it!' and Not punish it as a mistake but treat it as an accident and not worthy of giving up needless possession to the opponents!

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Vicki
The technical answer is that the player is penalised for deliberate handling or if the ball was kicked an IDFK for touching the ball for a second time by the same player.
Perhaps in an underage game the referee allowed a retake on the basis of perhaps generosity at a failed restart or that if the flag was actually removed by the kick that it is an infringement of Law 17 as the flag must not be removed before the kick which is a retake.