What is being questioned about the free kick?
Every question in this scenario
The Free kick investigation scenario asks 19 questions and can reach 32 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 about the free kick?
Law 13 says only who gets a free kick. Everything after that is procedure: the place, the taking, the distances, and the sanctions.
Answers: Where the kick was taken from · How the kick itself was taken · Where the opponents were standing · The ball went directly into a goal · The kicker played the ball again · Whether it should have been direct or indirect
2Where was the offence, and who is the free kick to?
All free kicks are taken from the place where the offence occurred. Law 13 then prints four exception bullets carrying five cases.
Answers: On the field of play, and no other Law names a position · Inside the goal area, an indirect free kick to the attackers · A free kick to the defending team inside its own goal area · A player entering or leaving the field without permission · Off the field of play
3Is the offence one that Law 12 punishes with a direct free kick?
Only a direct free kick offence can turn this into a penalty kick, and only if the nearest boundary point is inside the offender's own area.
Answers: Yes · No
4Is the nearest point on the boundary line inside the offender's own penalty area?
The test is the nearest point on the boundary line, not where the offender was standing.
Answers: Yes · No
5What is in question about the taking of the kick?
Three of the things a kicker may do here look like offences and are not: lifting the ball with the feet, feinting, and playing it off an opponent.
Answers: Whether the ball was stationary · The kicker lifted the ball with a foot, or both feet at once · The kicker feinted before taking it · The kick barely moved the ball · The kicker deliberately kicked the ball at an opponent
6Was the ball stationary at the moment it was kicked?
A ball still rolling from being placed, or nudged by the standing foot as the kicker strikes it, has not met the requirement.
Answers: Yes · No
7Did the kick produce something better for the opponents than a retake would?
Law 5's advantage power was amended for 2026/27 to name a restart that is incorrectly taken and the ball in play, so the retake is not automatic.
Answers: Yes · No
8Was the ball kicked, and did it clearly move?
Neither half is a distance. A ball touched with the sole and left where it is has not clearly moved; a ball tapped a few centimetres has.
Answers: Yes · No
9Was the kick at the opponent careless or reckless, or did it use excessive force?
Playing the ball off a defender's legs to win it back is licensed. The condition on it is the ordinary Law 12 ladder.
Answers: Yes · No
10Which distance is in question?
Two distances run in opposite directions: 9.15 m for opponents of the kicker, and 1 m for attackers standing off a wall.
Answers: An opponent was closer than 9.15 m (10 yds) · An attacker within 1 m of a wall of three or more · Opponents inside the area at a defending team's free kick · An opponent on their own goal line between the posts
11Did the kicking team take the kick quickly, rather than wait for the distance?
This is about the kicking team's choice rather than the opponent's position, and it decides the whole encroachment branch.
Answers: Yes · No
12What did the nearby opponent do?
Two of these are special cases and the third falls back to the general rule, which applies to every free kick.
Answers: Intercepted or played the ball · Deliberately stopped the kick being taken quickly · Neither: the kick went ahead and they did not play it
13Did the kicking team keep an advantage despite the opponent being too close?
The retake is not automatic. The team the distance protects may be better off with what the kick produced.
Answers: Yes · No
14Did an opponent inside the area touch or challenge for the ball before it was in play?
Law 13 declines to punish an opponent who simply had no time to get out, and asks instead what they did.
Answers: Yes · No
15Which goal did the ball go into, and what kind of free kick was it?
Law 13 prints three outcomes for a ball that goes straight into a goal from a free kick, and the third does not depend on the kind of kick at all.
Answers: A direct free kick, straight into the opponents' goal · An indirect free kick, straight into the opponents' goal · Straight into the kicking team's own goal
16Did the referee raise an arm above the head to signal that the kick was indirect?
The signal is not a formality. Law 13 attaches a consequence to its absence.
Answers: Yes · No
17Was the kicker's second touch a handball offence?
This comes before every other question about the second touch, because the two answers have different sanctions.
Answers: Yes · No
18Was the handball inside the kicker's own penalty area?
Where the kicker's second touch is a handball offence, Law 13 replaces the indirect free kick with the ordinary handball sanctions, and those depend on where the offence happened.
Answers: Yes · No
19Was the kicker the goalkeeper?
A goalkeeper cannot commit a handball offence inside their own penalty area, so the penalty kick has nothing to rest on.
Answers: Yes · No
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.
Taken from where the offence occurred
This is the rule the exceptions are exceptions to. The kick is taken from the place of the offence, which is where the offence was committed rather than where the ball was, where it ended up, or where the players finished. Law 13 lists its exceptions rather than leaving a margin, so a kick moved for a better angle or a clearer run has been moved without a provision allowing it.
From the nearest point on the goal area line
An indirect free kick to the attacking team for an offence inside the opponents' goal area is not taken where the offence happened. It moves out to the nearest point on the goal area line which runs parallel to the goal line, which is the six yard line rather than the goal line itself. Without it the defending team would be facing a kick taken from a few metres in front of its own goal with no room to form a wall.
Anywhere in that goal area
A free kick to the defending team in its own goal area may be taken from anywhere in that area, so a goalkeeper walking the ball to the corner of the six yard box has taken it correctly. This runs the same way as Law 16, and it is a permission rather than a requirement: taking it from the exact spot of the offence is equally correct.
From where the ball was when play was stopped
Free kicks for offences involving a player entering, re-entering or leaving the field of play without permission are taken from the position of the ball when play was stopped. The offence and the ball are in two different places for this one, and the Law follows the ball.
Penalty kick
Both limbs are met: the offence is one Law 12 punishes with a direct free kick, and the nearest point on the boundary line falls inside the offender's own penalty area. Law 13 says a penalty kick is awarded in that case. So an offence committed entirely off the field can produce a penalty, which is the part of this provision that surprises people, and the reason is that the restart is located by the boundary point rather than by the offender.
On the boundary line nearest to the offence
Where a player commits an offence off the field of play, play is restarted with a free kick taken on the boundary line nearest to where the offence occurred. The kick comes back onto the field even though the offence did not happen on it. The penalty kick limb does not reach here, either because the offence is not a direct free kick offence or because the nearest boundary point is outside the offender's penalty area.
The kick was correctly taken
The ball was stationary, which is what Law 13 requires of it. The ball then comes into play when it is kicked and clearly moves, so those two conditions between them are the whole of what makes a free kick a taken free kick. Waiting for a signal is not among them: the kicking team may take the kick as soon as the ball is stationary unless the referee has stopped it to set the distance.
Play continues on the advantage
The ball was not stationary, so the kick was not taken as Law 13 requires, and play still continues. Law 5's advantage power names this case in its own words for 2026/27: the referee allows play to continue when an offence occurs, or a restart is incorrectly taken and the ball is in play, and the opposing team will benefit. The judgement is the ordinary advantage judgement, made in favour of the team that did not take the kick, and the retake is ordered instead if the advantage does not ensue at that time or within a few seconds.
The kick has not been taken as Law 13 requires
The ball must be stationary. A kick struck while the ball is still moving has not met that requirement, so the free kick still stands to be taken and is taken again. Law 13's offences and sanctions section prints consequences for encroachment, the wall, opponents in the penalty area and a second touch by the kicker, and prints none for a moving ball, so the remedy here is the ordinary handling of a restart that was not taken. That silence is Law 13's alone. Law 5 was amended for 2026/27 to name a restart incorrectly taken with the ball in play as a case where advantage may be applied, which is why the retake is reached only once the question above has been answered.
Lifting the ball with the feet is a legal free kick
A free kick can be taken by lifting the ball with a foot or both feet simultaneously. Law 13 prints that as a permission and attaches no condition to it, so the ball still only has to be kicked and clearly move to be in play. Worth holding next to the restarts that go the other way: at a penalty kick and at kicks from the penalty mark, a kicker who accidentally kicks the ball with both feet simultaneously has committed an offence with its own sanction. Law 13 permits deliberately what those two penalise accidentally.
Feinting to take a free kick is permitted
Feinting to take a free kick to confuse opponents is permitted as part of football. Law 13 says so in its own words, and it says it without qualification, so a run up that stops, a player stepping over the ball for a team-mate, and a dummy that sends the wall the wrong way are all inside the Law. This is the opposite of the penalty kick rule in Law 14, where feinting after the run up has been completed is an offence, and the two are worth keeping apart because the same word covers both.
The ball is in play
The ball was kicked and clearly moved, so it is in play and the free kick is over as a restart. Everything that turned on the ball not yet being in play stops applying at that moment: opponents may close the distance, an opponent in the penalty area at a defending team's free kick can no longer cause a retake, and the kicker's next touch becomes a second touch.
The ball is not in play, so the free kick has not been taken
The ball is in play when it is kicked and clearly moves. If it was not kicked, or did not clearly move, the restart has not happened at all, so what follows is not play resuming but the free kick still waiting to be taken. Nothing a player does in the meantime is an offence against a ball in play, and the distances opponents must keep still apply.
This is decided on the Law 12 ladder, not by Law 13
Law 13's licence to kick the ball at an opponent in order to play it again is conditional on the kick not being careless or reckless and not using excessive force. Once that condition fails the licence does not apply, and what is left is an ordinary Law 12 offence, decided on the careless, reckless and excessive force ladder with the card that goes with it. Grading the kick on that ladder is what comes next.
Continues in the foul sanction scenario.
Play continues
If a player, while correctly taking a free kick, deliberately kicks the ball at an opponent in order to play the ball again, but not in a careless or reckless manner or using excessive force, the referee allows play to continue. Two things follow. The ball has been kicked and has clearly moved, so it is in play, and it has touched another player, so the kicker may play it again with no second touch offence.
Play continues, and there is no retake
If a player takes a free kick quickly and an opponent who is less than 9.15 m (10 yds) from the ball intercepts it, the referee allows play to continue. The team that chose speed over the distance does not get the distance back when the choice does not come off. This is the limb that stops a quick free kick being a free option.
Caution: delaying the restart of play
An opponent who deliberately prevents a free kick being taken quickly must be cautioned for delaying the restart of play. Law 13 writes it as a must, and it is the same cautionable offence Law 12 lists, so standing over the ball, kicking it away or blocking the kicker's path to it is a caution rather than a matter of the referee's patience. The requirement is deliberate prevention: an opponent who is merely still walking back has not committed it.
Play continues on the advantage
The kick is retaken where an opponent is closer to the ball than the required distance, unless the advantage can be applied. So the retake is not automatic: where the kick has produced something better for the kicking team than taking it again would, play continues. The advantage replaces the retake and not the card: failing to respect the required distance at a free kick is still a caution. The judgement is the ordinary advantage judgement, made in favour of the team the distance requirement exists to protect.
The free kick is retaken
Until the ball is in play all opponents must remain at least 9.15 m (10 yds) from it, the kicking team did not choose to take the kick quickly, and no advantage came of it. The kick is retaken. Note what this does not require: Law 13 asks only whether the opponent was closer than the distance when the kick was taken, not whether being there made any difference to the kick.
Indirect free kick to the defending team
Where three or more defending team players form a wall, all attacking team players must remain at least 1 m (1 yd) from it until the ball is in play, and if an attacking team player is less than 1 m from that wall when the kick is taken, an indirect free kick is awarded. Three conditions have to hold together: three or more defenders, in a wall, and the attacker inside a metre of it at the moment the kick is taken. Two defenders standing together are not a wall for this purpose, and the restriction runs one way only, against the attacking team.
The free kick is retaken
An opponent who is in the penalty area when the free kick is taken, or who enters the penalty area before the ball is in play, and who touches or challenges for the ball before it is in play, causes the kick to be retaken. Touching or challenging is what converts presence into an offence, and the timing is what makes it one: before the ball is in play. The same player winning the ball a moment after the kick has clearly moved it has done nothing wrong.
Play continues
If, when a free kick is taken by the defending team inside its penalty area, any opponents are inside the penalty area because they did not have time to leave, the referee allows play to continue. A defending team is free to take this kick as quickly as it likes and an attacker cannot leave a penalty area instantly, so presence alone is not the offence.
Allowed, and it is the one exception to the ten yards
Opponents must remain at least 9.15 m (10 yds) from the ball unless they are on their own goal line between the goalposts. That carve-out is what makes a defender standing on the line beside the goalkeeper legal at a free kick awarded close to goal, where ten yards would put them behind their own net. It is written narrowly: on the goal line, and between the posts. A defender on the line outside a post is not covered by it.
Goal
If a direct free kick is kicked directly into the opponents' goal, a goal is awarded. That is the whole of what direct means for the kick itself: no other player has to touch the ball, and no further condition attaches.
No goal: goal kick
If an indirect free kick is kicked directly into the opponents' goal, a goal kick is awarded. No goal, and the restart is a goal kick rather than a corner or another free kick, because the ball has gone out of play over the goal line last touched by an attacker.
The indirect free kick is retaken
An indirect free kick must be retaken if the referee fails to signal that the kick is indirect and the ball is kicked directly into the goal. The kicking team is not made to lose the kick for the referee's omission, and the goal is not awarded either.
No goal: corner kick to the opponents
If a direct or indirect free kick is kicked directly into the team's own goal, a corner kick is awarded. The kind of free kick makes no difference here, which is the one place in this provision where it does not. The corner is the same consequence Laws 8, 16 and 17 print for a kick-off, a goal kick and a corner kick that goes directly into the kicker's own goal.
Indirect free kick to the opponents
Where the kicker was the goalkeeper, an indirect free kick is awarded rather than a penalty kick. The goalkeeper who takes a free kick inside their own penalty area and then picks the ball up before anyone else has touched it has committed the second touch and not a handball offence, because handling inside their own penalty area is not an offence for them, so the sanction stays at the indirect free kick a second touch carries.
Penalty kick to the opponents
A penalty kick is awarded if the offence occurred inside the kicker's penalty area, and the kicker was not the goalkeeper. This is the outfield player who takes a free kick in their own box and then handles the ball before anyone else touches it, and it is the harshest thing in Law 13: a second touch that would be an indirect free kick anywhere else becomes a penalty against their own team.
Direct free kick to the opponents
Where the kicker commits a handball offence in touching the ball a second time, a direct free kick is awarded rather than the indirect free kick a second touch normally gives. The upgrade is the handball, not the second touch, so the ordinary Law 12 handball test still has to be met before this applies: an accidental touch that is not an offence leaves the second touch to be punished as a second touch.
Indirect free kick to the opponents
If, after the ball is in play, the kicker touches the ball again before it has touched another player, an indirect free kick is awarded. The kind of free kick that was being taken makes no difference to this, and neither does whether the second touch helped: it applies to a kicker who dribbles the ball away as much as to one who miskicks and follows up. It bites only after the ball is in play, so a kicker who nudges a stationary ball twice without it clearly moving has not yet taken the kick at all. The restart is not the whole answer. Law 12 sends a player off for denying a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by an offence punishable by a free kick, and an indirect free kick is a free kick, so a defender who takes a kick towards his own goal, sees an attacker coming and plays it again to stop him concedes the indirect free kick and is sent off. The exception written for a goalkeeper is about a handball offence specifically and does not reach this one.
Which offence it was decides direct or indirect, and that is Law 12
Law 13 says only that direct and indirect free kicks are awarded to the opposing team of the player, substitute, substituted or sent-off player, or team official guilty of an offence. It never says which offences produce which kick. That is Law 12's two lists, and the same reading also settles whether the restart becomes a penalty kick and whether a card follows. So what has to be settled next is which offence it was, on the careless, reckless and excessive force ladder and the lists on either side of it.
Continues in the foul sanction scenario.