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Soccer Rules Changes 1580-2000


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Question Number: 30293

Law 8 - Start and Restart of Play 4/15/2016

RE: UEFA B

Ken of Drogheda, Ireland asks...

Was the law changed before as I think that the ball did not always have to go forward from kick off. I seem to remember that law being introduced some time ago I note it has recently changed so the ball will no longer have to go forward from next season. Thanks

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Ken
The Law was always that the ball had to be kicked forward. Even when it was Law 2 it had to be forward which by the way was a very long time ago.
What you might be thinking on is that at one time a goal could not be scored directly from a kick off. That was changed in 1997 in the last big rewrite before this one.
The new change means that the obvious kick / tap backwards no longer has to be pulled back by the referee that wants to be technically correct.



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