What is being questioned?
Every question in this scenario
The Ball in and out of play investigation scenario asks 18 questions and can reach 36 decisions. A walk answers only the ones its own answers lead to. This is the whole set, for reference and for revision.
1What is being questioned?
A dropped ball is the restart when the referee stops play and the Law does not require one of the others.
Answers: Whether the ball was out of play · A dropped ball · The kick-off · The ball itself: it burst, went soft, or was changed · The goal frame or nets: moved, broken, or in the way · The lines: whether being on one counts as in or out
2What happened to the ball?
The list is short and closed: a boundary line, the referee stopping play, and a match official the ball hits.
Answers: It crossed a boundary line · It hit a match official and stayed on the field · It hit a goalpost, crossbar or corner flagpost · The referee stopped play · Someone off the field touched it as it was leaving
3Did the whole of the ball pass over the line?
The whole of the ball and the whole of the line, on the ground or in the air.
Answers: Yes · No
4Which line did it cross?
Law 9 puts the ball out the same way at both lines and says nothing about the restart. That is Laws 15, 16 and 17.
Answers: A touchline · A goal line, with no goal scored
5What happened after the ball hit the official?
Anything else and the ball was never out, which is the general rule Law 9 states in its own words.
Answers: A team started a promising attack · The ball went directly into the goal · The team in possession changed · None of those: play simply carried on
6Was the touch made without any intention to interfere with play unfairly?
The whole provision is conditioned on the touch not being an attempt to interfere unfairly.
Answers: Yes · No
7What about the dropped ball is in question?
Who the ball is dropped for turns on where the ball was, rather than on who was at fault.
Answers: Who the ball is dropped for · Where it is dropped · How far everyone else has to stand · When the ball is in play · It had to be dropped again · It went straight into a goal
8Was the ball inside the penalty area when play was stopped?
Law 8 splits the whole question on this one fact, and it is about the ball rather than about the players or the incident.
Answers: Yes · No
9Can the referee determine which team would have retained or gained possession?
A ball rolling out for a throw-in is dropped for the team that would have taken that throw.
Answers: Yes · No
10Had the ball hit a match official or an outside agent?
Contact with an official or an outside agent moves the drop to where the interference happened.
Answers: Yes · No
11What happened to it?
Law 8 prints exactly two cases where the ball is dropped again, and both are about the ball rather than about anyone's conduct.
Answers: A player touched it before it touched the ground · It left the field after touching the ground, untouched
12Which goal did it enter, and had at least two players touched it?
A dropped ball touched by at least two players before it reaches a goal is an ordinary goal. This is the other case.
Answers: The opponents' goal, touched by fewer than two players · The team's own goal, touched by fewer than two players · Either goal, after at least two players had touched it
13What about the kick-off is in question?
Law 8 sets who takes it, four requirements, the test for when the ball is in play, and the two things that can follow.
Answers: Who takes it, and which way the teams are playing · How it is taken · The ball went straight into a goal · The kicker played the ball again
14Which kick-off is it?
Law 8 settles all of this at the toss and then follows it mechanically for the rest of the match.
Answers: The start of the first half · The start of the second half · After a goal was scored
15Were the positions, the distance, the ball on the mark and the signal all correct?
They are cumulative. Every player except the kicker in their own half, opponents 9.15 m away, the ball stationary on the centre mark, and the referee's signal given.
Answers: Yes · No
16Which goal did the ball enter?
A goal may be scored directly from the kick-off against the opponents, which is the one thing about a kick-off most people know and is worth confirming rather than assuming.
Answers: The opponents' goal · The kicker's own goal
17Was the second touch a handball offence?
Law 8 prints no penalty kick limb here, unlike Laws 13, 15, 16 and 17.
Answers: Yes · No
18When did it happen?
Law 2 answers a defective ball by where play was rather than by what was wrong with the ball.
Answers: While the ball was in open play · At a kick-off, goal kick, corner, free kick or throw-in · During a penalty or shoot-out, as the ball moved forward · The ball was changed, or a spare ball was used
Every decision it can reach
Each one is where a walk ends, with the reasoning it prints. The clause behind a decision is cited on the decision itself, which you reach by walking to it.
Out over a touchline: the restart is a throw-in
The ball is out of play when it has wholly passed over the touchline, on the ground or in the air, and a throw-in goes to the opponents of the player who last touched it. Everything after that is Law 15: whether the throw was correctly taken, the two metres opponents must keep, the five-second countdown, and the thrower's second touch.
Continues in the throw in scenario.
Out over a goal line: it is a corner or a goal kick
The ball is out of play when it has wholly passed over the goal line, on the ground or in the air. Which restart follows turns on one fact, who touched it last: a goal kick where an attacker touched it last and no goal is scored, a corner kick where a defender did. Each restart then has its own procedure and its own sanctions.
Continues in the goal kick corner scenario.
Still in play
The ball is out of play only when it has wholly passed over the goal line or touchline, on the ground or in the air, and it is in play at all other times. Any part of the ball still over any part of the line keeps it on the field, which is why the decision is made on the ball's overhang rather than on where it is touching the ground.
Out of play: dropped ball
The ball is out of play when it touches a match official, remains on the field of play, and a team starts a promising attack, or the ball goes directly into the goal, or the team in possession of the ball changes. In all these cases play is restarted with a dropped ball. Note what the second limb does: a shot that goes in off the referee is not a goal, and the restart is a dropped ball rather than a kick-off.
Still in play
The ball is in play at all other times when it touches a match official. So a ball that rebounds off the referee to a player of the same team, with no promising attack starting and no goal, is simply in play and nothing is restarted. Law 9 names a match official in the same sentence as the goalposts, crossbar and corner flagpost, and only the three named consequences change that.
Still in play
The ball is in play when it rebounds off a goalpost, crossbar or corner flagpost and remains on the field of play. Law 9 states this as its own provision rather than leaving it to be inferred from the boundary test, and the corner flagpost is in the list for a reason: it stands on the field, so a ball coming back off it has never crossed anything.
Out of play, and the restart depends on why
The ball is out of play when play has been stopped by the referee. What follows is whatever the Law requires for the reason play was stopped, a free kick, a penalty kick or a card, and a dropped ball is the restart when the referee stops play and the Law does not require one of those. One thing does not change with it: if an offence occurs when the ball is not in play, that does not change how play is restarted.
Indirect free kick, and no card
Where a team official, substitute, substituted or sent-off player, or a player temporarily off the field for injury or equipment, touches the ball while it is still in play but clearly leaving the field, and does so without intending to interfere with play unfairly, this is penalised with an indirect free kick and there is no sanction. Two things are doing work: the ball had not yet left the field, so there was still play to interfere with, and the absence of unfair intent is what removes the card rather than the free kick.
Law 9 does not write this one down, and the free kick is the floor
The provision covering a touch from off the field is conditioned on the person not intending to interfere with play unfairly, and Law 9 prints no outcome for the case where they did. Two printed rules bracket it. Law 9 itself penalises the innocent touch with an indirect free kick and withholds any sanction, so the deliberate touch cannot be worth less: the free kick stays and the misconduct is dealt with on its own terms, which is the half Law 9 declines to give the innocent offender. And Law 3 answers these same people once they are on the field, giving a direct free kick or a penalty kick where a team official, substitute, substituted or sent-off player enters the field of play and interferes with play, so reaching over the line to play the ball takes the case there. This is Ruleside reading across from those two rather than quoting a rule for the situation. What the Laws will not support is a dropped ball: that is Law 3's answer for an outside agent, which is the one category Law 9's provision leaves out, and it would leave the deliberate offender better off than the innocent one.
Dropped for the defending team's goalkeeper
If the ball was inside the penalty area when play was stopped, the referee drops it for the defending team goalkeeper in their penalty area. No question of possession arises: it goes to the goalkeeper whoever had the ball and whatever stopped play, which is what stops a dropped ball becoming a chance in front of goal.
Dropped for one player of the team that would have had possession
Outside the penalty area the referee drops the ball for one player of the team that would have retained or gained possession, including from the restart if the ball would have gone out of play. One player, not a contested drop between two: the modern dropped ball is not a competition for the ball, which is why the four metre requirement below applies to everyone else on both teams.
Dropped for one player of the team that last touched it
Where the referee cannot determine which team would have retained or gained possession, the ball is dropped for one player of the team that last touched it. This is the fallback rather than the rule, and the order matters: last touch decides only when the possession question genuinely cannot be answered.
Dropped where the interference or contact happened
Where the ball hit a match official or an outside agent, it is dropped at the position of the interference or contact rather than at its position when play was stopped. The two are different because a ball that hits the referee carries on travelling before the whistle goes, and the exception puts the restart back where the interference actually was.
Dropped at the ball's position when play was stopped
The ball is dropped at its position when play was stopped. Not where the incident was, not where the players are, and not at any convenient spot: the ball's own position at the moment the whistle went. Law 8 prints that sentence in the bullet governing a ball outside the penalty area, so it is the answer for the drop that is contested. A ball inside the penalty area when play stopped does not need it, because that bullet sends the ball to the defending team goalkeeper in their penalty area and settles where it goes in the same words.
Everyone else stays at least 4 m (4.5 yds) away
All other players of both teams must remain at least 4 m from the ball until it is in play. It applies to team-mates of the player receiving the drop as much as to opponents, which follows from the ball being dropped for one player rather than contested: there is nobody the distance is meant to favour.
In play the moment it touches the ground
The ball is in play when it touches the ground. Nobody has to play it, it does not have to move, and no signal is needed: the ground does it. That is why a ball touched before it lands has to be dropped again, and why one that runs out of play untouched after landing does too.
Dropped again
The ball is dropped again if it touches a player before it touches the ground. The ball was not yet in play, so nothing that happened to it counts, and there is no offence to punish: a player who reaches in too early simply causes a re-drop rather than conceding anything.
Dropped again
The ball is dropped again if it leaves the field of play after it touches the ground, without touching a player. It was in play from the moment it touched the ground, so it did leave the field, and Law 8 answers it with a re-drop rather than a throw-in or a goal kick, for a ball that touched no player.
No goal: goal kick
If a dropped ball enters the goal without touching at least two players, play is restarted with a goal kick if it enters the opponents' goal. The threshold is two players and Law 8 does not say which two, so a drop that the receiving player alone runs in from is not a goal, and a drop touched by one player of each team is.
No goal: corner kick
If a dropped ball enters the goal without touching at least two players, play is restarted with a corner kick if it enters the team's own goal. Same threshold, at the other end.
Goal
The restriction reaches only a dropped ball that enters the goal without touching at least two players. Once two have touched it, the ball is in play in the ordinary way and the goal counts at either end, with no further condition attaching to the fact that play restarted with a drop.
Decided by the toss, and the winner chooses
The referee tosses a coin and the team that wins the toss decides which goal to attack in the first half or to take the kick-off. Their opponents then take whichever of the two the winner did not choose. So winning the toss is a choice between two things rather than a right to both.
Taken by the team that chose ends, and the teams change ends
For the second half the teams change ends and attack the opposite goals, and the kick-off is taken by the team that decided which goal to attack in the first half. Both halves of the toss therefore pay out once each: one team picks the end and starts the second half, the other starts the first.
Taken by the team that conceded
After a team scores a goal, the kick-off is taken by their opponents. It is the one kick-off that is not settled at the toss, and it does not depend on which half it is or on how the goal was scored.
Correctly taken, and the ball is in play
Every requirement is met and the ball is in play when it is kicked and clearly moves. Law 8 asks nothing about direction and nothing about a second player touching it, so a kick-off played straight backwards to a defender is correct.
The kick-off is retaken
In the event of any other kick-off procedure offence, the kick-off is retaken. The word other is doing work: it holds the catch-all apart from the kicker's second touch, which the sentence before sanctions with a free kick to the opponents. Everything else is a retake, and that covers all four requirements: a player in the wrong half, an opponent inside the 9.15 m, a ball off the centre mark or still moving, and a kick taken before the referee's signal. Nothing passes to the other team, and Law 8 prints no card for the procedure itself.
Goal
A goal may be scored directly against the opponents from the kick-off. Nothing else has to happen: no second touch, no requirement that the ball travel forward first, and no offside question. The reason is the kick-off's own first requirement rather than where the ball sits: every player except the kicker must be in their own half when it is taken, and a player is in an offside position only with part of the head, body or feet in the opponents' half, the halfway line excluded. So at the moment a kick-off is played nobody can be in an offside position.
No goal: corner kick to the opponents
If the ball directly enters the kicker's goal from a kick-off, a corner kick is awarded to the opponents. Law 8 words this as Laws 16 and 17 word it for the goal kick and the corner kick, and Law 13 gives the same corner kick for a free kick into the team's own goal.
Direct free kick to the opponents
Where the kicker's second touch is a handball offence, a direct free kick is awarded rather than the indirect free kick a second touch normally gives. Law 8 stops there. Laws 13, 15, 16 and 17 all carry a further limb, a penalty kick where the handball offence was inside the kicker's own penalty area, with an indirect free kick instead if the kicker was the goalkeeper, and Law 8 prints neither. That is a gap rather than an impossibility, because a kick-off played backwards can run untouched into the kicker's own penalty area and be handled there. Law 14 answers what Law 8 leaves out, awarding a penalty kick for a direct free kick offence committed by a player inside their own penalty area.
Indirect free kick to the opponents
If the player taking the kick-off touches the ball again before it has touched another player, an indirect free kick is awarded. Since Law 8 asks only that the ball is kicked and clearly moves, this is easy to commit: a player who taps the ball and then dribbles it away has touched it twice.
Dropped ball: the ball became defective in open play
If the ball becomes defective, play is stopped and restarted with a dropped ball. Law 2 stops at that word and Law 8 decides the rest, which is worth spelling out because the two answers differ: inside the penalty area the replacement ball is dropped for the defending team goalkeeper whichever team was attacking, and outside it goes to the team that would have retained or gained possession. So a burst ball at the end of an attack does not hand the attack back.
Retake: the ball became defective at a restart
If the ball becomes defective at a kick-off, goal kick, corner kick, free kick, penalty kick or throw-in, the restart is retaken. Six restarts are named together, so the answer does not change with which one it was, and the retake replaces the dropped ball that open play would have produced.
Retake: the ball failed on its way to goal
If the ball becomes defective during a penalty kick, or during penalties (a penalty shoot-out), as it moves forward and before it touches a player, the crossbar or the goalposts, the penalty kick is retaken. The condition is narrow on purpose: once the ball has touched any of those, the kick has had its outcome and Law 2's open-play answer takes over.
The ball may not be changed without the referee's permission
The ball may not be changed during the match without the referee's permission. Additional balls meeting Law 2's requirements may be placed around the field of play, and their use is under the referee's control too, so a spare ball does not become the match ball because a player picked one up. Law 5 answers the extra ball that reaches the field anyway, and the answer is not automatic: the referee stops play only if it interferes with play, and then restarts with a dropped ball, allowing a goal that was going in where the interference did not stop a defender playing the ball and was not by the attacking team.
Play stops until it is fixed, and restarts with a dropped ball
If the crossbar becomes displaced or broken, play is stopped until it has been repaired or replaced in position, and play restarts with a dropped ball. If it cannot be repaired the match must be abandoned, and a rope or any flexible or dangerous material may not replace it. Law 1 writes that down for the crossbar and for nothing else. A broken goalpost and a net that has come loose in play have no provision of their own, only the standing requirements behind them: a goal is two posts joined by a crossbar, goals including portable ones must be firmly secured to the ground, and nets, where they are used, must be properly supported and must not interfere with the goalkeeper. Ruleside reads the crossbar rule across to a post, because a frame missing a post is no more playable than one missing its bar, and that is a reading rather than a citation: the sentence the Laws print names the crossbar.
A line is part of the area it encloses, so being on it is being inside it
Law 1 states it twice and states it plainly. Under Field markings: these lines belong to the areas of which they are boundaries. Again under the measurements: measurements are from the outside of the lines, as the lines are part of the area they enclose. So the touchline and the goal line are part of the field, which is why the ball must wholly pass over a line to be out and a ball resting on the line is still in play. The penalty area line is part of the penalty area, so a foul committed with contact on the line is a foul in the penalty area. The halfway line is the one place the Laws do not leave it to this rule: Law 11 settles it in its own words, requiring part of the player to be in the opponents' half and putting 'excluding the halfway line' in brackets, so a player standing on it is not in an offside position. One measurement is specified separately because it is not taken from a line at all: the penalty mark is measured from the centre of the mark to the back edge of the goal line. And where the metric and imperial figures diverge, the metric units are the authoritative ones, so 9.15 m governs and 10 yds is the approximation.