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Soccer Referee Questions on Soccer Rules
Welcome to AskTheRef.com, a Soccer Law/Rules Question & Answer site!
Operating since October 11, 1999, that is 25 years as an independent, FREE, public service site. Dedicated to personally answering your questions regarding any Professional or Grassroots, FIFA, College, High school, or Youth soccer game situation. To ask a question simply click on Ask the Ref in the menu bar, post your question!

Please understand, we are comprised of strictly volunteers, thus lack the time required to review or alter the hundreds of thousands of previous questions & answers. The LOTG /RULES are constantly being tweaked, reevaluated and rewritten each year, often rendering previous answers as incorrect, partially true and/or portions no longer applicable! Our answers can only coincide within the changing LOTG/RULES time/frame of the date a question was asked! We feel it is essential you review & read the latest version of the always changing Laws/Rules of the Game.

The IFAB 2023 - 2024 LOTG Laws of the Game can be viewed here:

https://www.theifab.com/

The USA Highschool rules can be viewed here:
https://nfhs.org/nfhs-for-you/officials/

The NCAA rules can be viewed here:
Soccer Rules of the Game - NCAA.org

Those who have ideas or articles please feel free to contact the editor Richard Dawson at mrref@asktheref.com with suggestions. There are no costs involved to ask or have us respond to a question but we are not upset if you wished to donate or sponsor on the site as in todays world it is difficult to operate independently.

You Call It!

After two years and many request - You Call It is back! Now it's your turn to test your knowledge in a scenario created by our panel of referees. If your answer is spot on we will publish it on our site! Good luck click here!

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 11/19/2024

RE: Under 13

Ken of Santa Barbara, Ca USA asks...

Charge vs shoulder to shoulder - defending player approx.
2 feet from attacking player There is movement from both but defender knocks down
the attacker.
To make it more interesting, this occurs inside the penalty area.
I called a charge and awarded a PK...

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Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 11/16/2024

Petr of Prague, Czech Republic Czech Republic asks...

Hello,

one 'holding' question please.

The Premier League website says this:

'Where both players are involved in simultaneous and similar actions (mutual holding), play should be allowed to continue.'

Situation:

Player A10 starts holding opponent player B5. Then Player B5 also starts holding player A10.

Does this mean that the fouls cancel each other out? We don't care who was first? (in this case A10)

Thank you very much!...

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Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 11/13/2024

Petr of Prague, Czech Republic Czech Republic asks...

Hello,

I have a slightly more general question this time. :-)

I will try to demonstrate it on two situations.

Situation 1:

The ball flies into the penalty area. The goalkeeper jumps into the air and catches the ball in his hands. The attacker also jumps and tries to hit the ball with his head. After the goalkeeper holds the ball, their bodies touch.

Situation 2:

The situation is similar. The attacker focuses on the ball. He touches the goalkeeper before he catches the ball. After the goalkeeper catches the ball, the touch continues or a new one occurs.

When is it a attacker's foul and when is it not? What are the criteria that determine your decision?

Th...

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Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 11/11/2024

RE: Competitive

Peter Babbage of Hjorring , Denmark asks...

During this weekends games a game that was somewhat controversial in light of today’s events has come under the spotlight even more. Liverpool player I think it was Salah was racing towards goal and is brought down. The referee decided it wasn’t a foul. The ball broke to Nunez who scored.Just a personal opinion but I thought it was a foul. So if we proceed on that basis and it was deemed to be a foul, should the Villa player have seen red? Liverpool scored but in my opinion they were dogso if that first incident was deemed a foul. What if Nunez ( as is often the case ) had blazed it wide?...

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Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 11/9/2024

RE: Senior 5 Adult

Colin Davies of Brighton , Sussex UK asks...

From a through ball the GK takes a forward out with a reckless tackle!The GK was cautioned. At this point the AR raises the flag for offside !! The Referee gives offside but said the caution will stand due to the severity of the challenge. Is this correct ?...

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Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 11/5/2024

RE: Rec Adult

Richard of Seattle, WA USA asks...

Substitutes penalized, but not the team? Doesn’t seem fair, given two red card offenses....

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Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 11/4/2024

RE: Rec Adult

Richard of Seattle, WA USA asks...

In the last minutes of a hotly contested match, two substitutes enter the field of play without referee permission and get in to a verbal altercation and pushing match with opponents. Both received red cards. Does the offending team continue play with a full side, or should they have continued play down two players?...

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Law 4 - The Players Equipment 11/2/2024

RE: PREMIER ASSESSOR Adult

ISHIAKU IBRAHIM of Lokoja, Kogi Nigeria asks...

Good day sir.
A player goes to the touch line when The ball was not in play to receive a phone call or to reply a message sent to him on his phone and continues the game after receiving his call or responding to the message. During all this, the ball was not in play and the said player was still inside the field play. WHAT SHOULD BE THE REFEREE DECISION IN SITUATION LIKE THIS. THANK YOU. ...

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High School 10/31/2024

RE: High School

DAVID LOVETT of Royal Palm Beach, FL United States asks...

I have a NFHS question. The throw in rules for high school say it has to be thrown in, in on continuous movement. So, I think this could be interpreted a couple of different ways. One is, what if the player starts the throw and decides his teammate is covered so he stops and turns in a different direction and makes the throw then? To me that would be illegal because the thrower stopped. But another interpretation could be that you can stop and change direction but the final delivered throw had to be one continuous motion. So at what point is the NFHS rules considering a "stop"? Is it actually during the delivery of the throw or from the moment you choose the direction you going. I hope this makes some kind of sense and thank you for your in...

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High School 10/31/2024

RE: High School

R. Banks of New York, New York USA asks...

The attacker has control of the ball and is tripped from behind by the last defender at the 18. The keeper is at the penalty spot at the time of the occurrence. Is criteria four met even if the keeper is 6 yards away from the attacking player?

103983...

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