Play The Ball Forward or Not During The Kick Off?
by Ian
Does the ball have to travel forwards from a kick off or can you pass the ball backwards. We had a ref on Saturday say that the ball must travel in a forward direction from the kick off, and not backwards. Well, I must admit that I’ve never heard something like this before. I searched on the net for the kick off rule and found this one; The official kick off rule state: A kick-off starts from the center of the soccer field, on the referee’s whistle. A soccer game is started when a player kicks the ball into the opponents half. Every player must be on his or her own half of the field during the kick-off. Players that are opposing the ball need to be at least ten yards from the ball until the ball is kicked. You may score a goal from the kick off, however, the ball must be passed to a teammate first and then back to you. The paragraph above doesn’t mention anything about whether the ball should be played forward or not. However, after researching this one properly I also learned something valuable; the referee is actually correct; you must play the ball from a kickoff when the ball is kicked and moved forward. However, those referees letting you kick the ball backwards are an affront to the game of soccer because they don't have the courage to enforce the laws of the game, which is their primary duty. I know by my own experience that some referees doesn’t follow the rules 100% especially when it comes to things like performing a correct throw in, placing the ball inside the corner kick area, ask the players to put the shirt inside their shorts and so on. However, you must keep in mind that referees are humans too and just like you they can be nervous about a soccer game and may forget some rules that are of less value because whether your opponents or your own team will benefit from them. But, I encourage you to tell the referee when he or she forgets these rules because I know that he or she will appreciate and thank you for that.
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