What is being questioned about the throw-in?
Every question in this scenario
The Throw-in investigation scenario asks 15 questions and can reach 25 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 throw-in?
Everything after the award is procedure: the delivery, where opponents stand, the ball going straight into a goal, and the thrower's next touch.
Answers: Whether a throw-in was the right restart · How the throw was delivered · What an opponent did · The ball went straight into a goal · The thrower played the ball again · A player was taking too long over it
2Why is a throw-in in question?
Law 15 gives a throw-in for two reasons and no others: the ball leaving the field over a touchline, and a player being penalised for delaying their own team's throw-in.
Answers: The ball went out over a touchline · A player was penalised for delaying their own throw-in
3Did the whole of the ball pass over the touchline?
A ball overhanging the line, or curling out and back without ever being entirely beyond its outer edge, has not left the field.
Answers: Yes · No
4What about the delivery is in question?
Law 15 also states one requirement about the ball reaching the field, and one licence for something that looks like an offence and is not.
Answers: The stance, the feet, the hands, or the point thrown from · The ball hit the ground before entering the field · The thrower deliberately threw the ball at an opponent
5Which of the four requirements did the throw fail?
They are cumulative and each is judged at the moment of delivery. The sanction is the same whichever fails.
Answers: Not standing, or not facing the field of play · A foot came off the touchline or off the ground outside it · Not both hands, or not from behind and over the head · Taken from the wrong place · None of them: the throw was correct
6Did the ball enter the field of play?
The ball is in play when it enters the field of play. Nothing else is required of it: it need not touch another player, travel any distance, or leave the area near the touchline.
Answers: Yes · No
7Did the ball touch the ground before it failed to enter the field?
Law 15 attaches the same-team retake to this one fact and to nothing else, so it is worth asking separately rather than folding into whether the ball got in.
Answers: Yes · No
8Was the throw at the opponent careless or reckless, or did it use excessive force?
Bouncing the ball off a defender on the touchline to keep possession is licensed, on a condition.
Answers: Yes · No
9Did an opponent distract or impede the thrower, or come within 2 m (2 yds)?
The 2 m is measured from the point on the touchline where the throw is to be taken.
Answers: Yes · No
10Had the throw-in been taken?
The caution follows either way. The timing decides whether there is anything to restart with.
Answers: Yes · No
11Which goal did the ball enter?
A goal cannot be scored directly from a throw-in. Law 15 then splits on which goal it went into, and the two restarts are different.
Answers: The opponents' goal · The thrower's own goal
12Was the thrower's second touch a handball offence?
This comes first, because the two answers have different sanctions.
Answers: Yes · No
13Was the handball inside the thrower's own penalty area?
Where the second touch is a handball offence, the ordinary handball sanctions apply instead.
Answers: Yes · No
14Was the ball handled by the defending team's goalkeeper?
A goalkeeper handling inside their own penalty area commits no handball offence, so the penalty kick has nothing to rest on.
Answers: Yes · No
15Where had the countdown got to?
The referee whistles and counts five seconds down visually with a raised hand.
Answers: Dawdling, or standing away from where the ball went out · In the act of throwing as the count reached zero · The five seconds ran out with the ball not in play · The delay continued after the throw was given away
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.
Throw-in to the opponents of the player who last touched it
The whole of the ball has passed over the touchline, so it is out of play and the throw-in goes to the opponents of the player who last touched it. Last touched is the whole test. It does not matter who put it under pressure, whether the touch was deliberate, or whether the ball came off a player who was trying to avoid it: a deflection off a defender's heel gives the throw to the attacking team as surely as a deliberate clearance would.
The ball is 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. Part of the ball still overhanging the line means the ball is still on the field, and the boundary lines belong to the areas they bound, so a ball sitting on the touchline is in play.
Throw-in to the opposing team
The second route to a throw-in is a sanction rather than the ball going out: a throw-in is awarded to the opponents when the referee penalises a player for delaying the taking of a throw-in for their team. This is the end of the five-second countdown, and the restart is taken from the same position as the original throw-in rather than from anywhere new.
Throw-in to the opposing team: the stance
At the moment of delivering the ball the thrower must stand facing the field of play. It is judged at the moment of delivery rather than during the run up, and it is about the body rather than the eyes. If the throw-in is not taken correctly, it is retaken by the opposing team. That is the sanction for every failure of the four requirements, and Law 15 closes the same way for anything else: for any other offence, the throw-in is taken by a player of the opposing team. There is no free kick, no caution, and no retake by the same team. One thing sits above that, and the 2026/27 edition added it: Law 5 lets the referee allow play to continue where a restart is incorrectly taken and the ball is in play and the opposing team will benefit, and the Law changes page names a throw-in as the example. So a foul throw that runs straight to an opponent in a good position can be played on, with the throw to the opponents ordered instead if the advantage does not come at that time or within a few seconds. Walk /investigate/referee for that judgement.
Throw-in to the opposing team: the feet
At the moment of delivering the ball the thrower must have part of each foot on the touchline or on the ground outside the touchline. Two things people add to this are not in it: the feet do not have to be outside the field, and they do not have to be still. Part of each foot in contact is the whole test. If the throw-in is not taken correctly, it is retaken by the opposing team. That is the sanction for every failure of the four requirements, and Law 15 closes the same way for anything else: for any other offence, the throw-in is taken by a player of the opposing team. There is no free kick, no caution, and no retake by the same team. One thing sits above that, and the 2026/27 edition added it: Law 5 lets the referee allow play to continue where a restart is incorrectly taken and the ball is in play and the opposing team will benefit, and the Law changes page names a throw-in as the example. So a foul throw that runs straight to an opponent in a good position can be played on, with the throw to the opponents ordered instead if the advantage does not come at that time or within a few seconds. Walk /investigate/referee for that judgement.
Throw-in to the opposing team: the hands or the action
The ball must be thrown with both hands from behind and over the head. Releasing with one hand first, stopping the action in front of the head, or throwing from beside it all fail this, and none of them requires the throw to have gained anything. If the throw-in is not taken correctly, it is retaken by the opposing team. That is the sanction for every failure of the four requirements, and Law 15 closes the same way for anything else: for any other offence, the throw-in is taken by a player of the opposing team. There is no free kick, no caution, and no retake by the same team. One thing sits above that, and the 2026/27 edition added it: Law 5 lets the referee allow play to continue where a restart is incorrectly taken and the ball is in play and the opposing team will benefit, and the Law changes page names a throw-in as the example. So a foul throw that runs straight to an opponent in a good position can be played on, with the throw to the opponents ordered instead if the advantage does not come at that time or within a few seconds. Walk /investigate/referee for that judgement.
Throw-in to the opposing team: the wrong place
The throw must be taken from the point where the ball left the field of play. That sits in the same bullet as the hands, so it is a requirement of delivery like the others rather than a courtesy, and a throw carried several metres upfield has failed it. If the throw-in is not taken correctly, it is retaken by the opposing team. That is the sanction for every failure of the four requirements, and Law 15 closes the same way for anything else: for any other offence, the throw-in is taken by a player of the opposing team. There is no free kick, no caution, and no retake by the same team. One thing sits above that, and the 2026/27 edition added it: Law 5 lets the referee allow play to continue where a restart is incorrectly taken and the ball is in play and the opposing team will benefit, and the Law changes page names a throw-in as the example. So a foul throw that runs straight to an opponent in a good position can be played on, with the throw to the opponents ordered instead if the advantage does not come at that time or within a few seconds. Walk /investigate/referee for that judgement.
The throw-in was correctly taken and the ball is in play
All four requirements were met at the moment of delivery and the ball entered the field of play, which is the moment it comes into play. From then on the thrower is bound by one further rule, that they must not touch the ball again until it has touched another player, and the opponents' two metre obligation has ended.
Retaken by the same team, from the same position
If the ball touches the ground before entering, the throw-in is retaken by the same team from the same position. This is the one throw-in failure that does not hand the ball over, and the contrast is the point: an incorrect throw goes to the opponents, while a correct throw that simply falls short is taken again by the same thrower's team.
Throw-in to the opposing team, and Law 15 does not say so directly
Law 15 prints two outcomes for a throw that goes wrong: the same team retakes it where the ball touched the ground before entering, and the opposing team takes it where the throw was not taken correctly, with a catch-all sending any other offence the same way. A throw that met all four requirements and simply never reached the field is neither. Ruleside reads it under the catch-all, because the ball never came into play and the same-team retake is written for one named fact that did not happen here. The Law does not address this case: it is a working line, not a quotation.
This is decided on the Law 12 ladder, not by Law 15
Law 15's licence to throw the ball at an opponent in order to play it again is conditional on the throw not being careless or reckless and not using excessive force. Once that condition fails, Law 15 has nothing more to say and the incident is an ordinary Law 12 offence, decided on the careless, reckless and excessive force ladder along with the card that goes with it. Grading the throw on that ladder is what comes next.
Continues in the foul sanction scenario.
Play continues
If a player, while correctly taking a throw-in, deliberately throws the ball at an opponent in order to play the ball again, but not in a careless or a reckless manner or using excessive force, the referee allows play to continue. Two things follow from it. The ball entered the field, so it is in play, and it touched another player, so the thrower is free to play it next with no second touch offence.
Caution, and an indirect free kick to the throwing team
The same offence, with the throw already taken, adds an indirect free kick to the caution. So the throwing team is not made to choose between keeping what the throw produced and having the offence punished: the free kick is awarded and the caution is given. Law 15 does not make this conditional on the interference having worked.
Caution: unsporting behaviour, and the throw-in is still to be taken
An opponent who unfairly distracts or impedes the thrower, including by moving closer than 2 m to the place where the throw-in is to be taken, is cautioned for unsporting behaviour. The throw-in has not been taken, so there is nothing to award a free kick from: the caution is given and the throw-in is then taken as it always was, by the same team from the same place.
Nothing to punish
An opponent standing at least 2 m from the point of the throw and doing nothing to distract or impede the thrower has met the whole of what Law 15 asks of them. Standing on the touchline in front of the thrower is not itself an offence at that distance, and jumping or waving the arms is not named either: the offence is unfairly distracting or impeding, which is a judgement about interference rather than about posture.
No goal: goal kick
A goal cannot be scored directly from a throw-in, and if the ball enters the opponents' goal a goal kick is awarded. Directly is the operative word: a throw that goes in off any other player, of either team, is a goal in the ordinary way, and the restriction has done its work only where nobody else touched it.
No goal: corner kick to the opponents
If the ball enters the thrower's goal, a corner kick is awarded. The same principle produces a different restart at each end, because the ball has left the field over the goal line last touched by a player of the defending team, which is what a corner is for. Laws 13, 16 and 17 all land the same way for their own restarts.
Indirect free kick to the opponents
Where the ball was handled by the defending team's goalkeeper, an indirect free kick is awarded rather than a penalty kick. A goalkeeper who takes a throw-in and then gathers the ball in their own penalty area before anyone else has touched it has committed the second touch and not a handball offence, so the sanction stays where the second touch put it.
Penalty kick to the opponents
A penalty kick is awarded if the offence occurred inside the thrower's penalty area and the handler was not the defending team's goalkeeper. This is an outfield player taking a throw-in level with their own box, receiving the ball back off nobody, and handling it: an offence that would be an indirect free kick anywhere else becomes a penalty against their own team.
Direct free kick to the opponents
Where the thrower 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 comes from the handball, so the ordinary Law 12 handball test has to be met first: a touch with an arm that was not deliberate and did not make the body unnaturally bigger is no handball offence, and the second touch stands to be punished as a second touch.
Indirect free kick to the opponents
If, after the ball is in play, the thrower touches the ball again before it has touched another player, an indirect free kick is awarded. It bites from the moment the ball enters the field, which for a throw-in is earlier than people expect: a thrower who throws the ball in and runs on to it themselves has committed this even if nobody was near it.
The countdown can start anyway
The referee does not have to wait for a player to have possession of the ball to start the five-second countdown, and where the player deliberately causes a delay the protocol names slowly retrieving the ball and taking up an incorrect position at a throw-in as things that can start it. Both are conditioned on the delay being deliberate, so a player who is genuinely slow to reach a ball in the crowd has not triggered anything. Ruleside reads an incorrect position as the thrower standing away from the point where the ball left the field, which is the requirement Law 15 sets. Nothing is punished yet: the clock is the referee's to start.
Not penalised, and the throw-in stands
As the purpose of the countdown is to maintain the tempo of the match by preventing time-wasting at throw-ins and goal kicks, the player should not be penalised if they are in the process of throwing the ball as the referee reaches the end of the countdown. The count is a tempo device rather than a stopwatch, and a player who has committed to the throw has done what the count exists to make them do.
Throw-in to the opposing team, from the same position
If the throw-in has not been taken by the end of the five seconds, it is awarded to the opposing team, taken from the same position as the original throw-in. Losing the throw is the whole of the sanction: the offending player is cautioned only if they excessively delay the restart after the throw-in has been awarded to the opposing team, so no card follows from the count running out on its own.
Caution: delaying the restart of play
Where the restart is awarded to the opposing team, a caution applies only if the player or a team-mate then excessively delays the restart by the opposing team. Two conditions sit inside that: the delay has to come after the award, and it has to be excessive. A player who simply lost the throw and walked away has not earned this, which is the change from the previous edition, where the delay itself was the caution.