Question Number: 15899

Law 8 - Start and Restart of Play 6/27/2007

RE: Under 16

Kyle Kenney of Kingston, Canada asks...

Alright.. Many referees have many different ways to do a coin toss.. What is the proper way?

If Player A calls "heads" and it ends up being tails, does that mean Player B has a choice of which half he wants the ball? Or does he automatically get the ball first half. As for Player A, is he allowed to choose which end he wants?

So some other questions I need answering is..
Heads is tossed after player calls tails, does that mean they choose choice of end?

Are you allowed to choose which half you can have the ball?

Help.

Answer provided by Referee Jon Sommer

Referees shouldn't have many different ways to make the coin toss. The Away team tends to call and whoever wins the toss has choice of ends as stated by the laws. The winner of the toss ALWAYS kicks off to start the second half.

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

Team that wins the toss picks a goal to attack. Team that loses must take opening kick. The second half everything is reversed.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Despite the Law being changed 10 years ago, we still find referees who wrongly give the winner of the coin toss the choice of kicking first. That is not correct! The winner of the toss gets to choose which end of the field. The loser of the toss takes the first kickoff.

There's many procedures, ceremonies and superstitions surrounding the coin toss - who calls, who tosses, is the coin caught or allowed to drop to the grass, etc. None of this matters in the least in creating a fair random coin toss. In fact, the referee could have a 2-headed coin, and as long as neither captain knew it, the toss would still be completely random!

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Sometimes I use a black/white plastic disk. Dark jersey is black, light jersey is white. Matching jersey chooses which end to attack the other gets the ball. No words, no sweat.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

According to the laws of the game...

The team that loses the coin toss (means they guess the outcome wrong or the other team calls it a guesses correctly) kicks-off to start the match.

The other team choses the half they want to start on.