What Is a Foul, and What Does It Cost?

Seven physical offences are a direct free kick when the referee judges them careless, reckless or made with excessive force. Those three words also decide the card: careless is no card, reckless is a caution, excessive force is a sending-off. A handful of further offences are a direct free kick however they are committed, and a separate list is only ever an indirect free kick. Inside the offender's own penalty area, a direct free kick offence becomes a penalty.^3, ^11, ^12, ^13, ^14, ^15, ^21, ³⁴

Key points

✓The seven physical offences are only fouls when they are careless, reckless or use excessive force^3, ^4, ^5, ^6, ^7, ^8, ^9, ¹⁰
✓Careless: a lack of attention or consideration, or acting without precaution. Direct free kick, no card^11, ¹²
✓Reckless: disregard for the danger to or consequences for an opponent. Direct free kick and a caution^11, ¹³
✓Excessive force: exceeding the necessary force or endangering an opponent's safety. Direct free kick and a sending-off^11, ¹⁴
✓Handling, holding, impeding with contact, biting or spitting, and throwing an object are direct free kicks however they are committed^15, ^16, ^17, ^18, ^19, ²⁰
✓Dangerous play, impeding without contact and dissent are indirect free kicks, never direct^21, ^22, ^23, ²⁴

Show the remaining 5 key points

✓A direct free kick offence inside the offender's own penalty area is a penalty kick³⁴
✓Nothing is a free kick or penalty offence unless the ball was in play when it happened²
✓A card can also come from what the offence denied rather than how hard it was, DOGSO above all^31, ^32, ³³
✓A foul that is neither reckless nor forceful can still be cautioned as a persistent offence^29, ³⁰
✓Playing advantage delays the card rather than cancelling it, except where the Laws say otherwise^1, ²⁸

Read the full rule

Scenarios

Scenario 1

Hard but fair tackle wins the ball

No foul

A defender slides in, takes the ball cleanly, and the attacker goes down over the top of them.

Correct call: No offence, play continues. A tackle is only a foul where it was careless, reckless or used excessive force, and a challenge that shows attention, consideration and precaution is none of those. Winning the ball is not itself the test, but a clean tackle rarely fails it.

Common mistake: Giving the foul because the attacker went down, or waving it away purely because the ball was won. Neither is the question. A tackle that gets the ball and then takes the opponent recklessly is still a caution.

Law^3, ^9, ^11, ¹²

Scenario 2

Same challenge, three different outcomes

Foul

A midfielder catches an opponent on the shin while going for the ball. Nothing else about the situation changes.

Correct call: The restart is a direct free kick in all three cases and only the card moves. Careless, no card. Reckless, meaning the player disregarded the danger, a caution. Excessive force or endangering the opponent's safety, a sending-off.

Common mistake: Treating the free kick and the card as two separate judgements. They come from one reading of the same challenge, which is why 'it was a foul but not a card' and 'it was a card so it must have been worse' are both confusions of the same thing.

Law^3, ^9, ^11, ^12, ^13, ¹⁴

Scenario 3

Shirt pull with no force in it

Foul

A defender takes a light hold of an attacker's shirt to slow them down. There is nothing careless or reckless about it.

Correct call: Direct free kick. Holding is on the second list, which is an offence however it is committed, so the careless, reckless and excessive force ladder never applies to it.

Common mistake: Playing on because the contact was minimal. Minimal contact is a reason there is no card, not a reason there is no offence.

Law^15, ¹⁷

Scenario 4

High boot near an opponent's head, no contact

Foul

A player raises a boot to head height to reach the ball. An opponent pulls out of the challenge and there is no contact.

Correct call: Indirect free kick for playing in a dangerous manner. With no contact there is nothing on the direct free kick list to award, and the offence is that the action threatened injury while trying to play the ball.

Common mistake: Reaching for a direct free kick because it looked dangerous. The absence of contact is exactly what puts it on the indirect list.

Law^21, ^22, ²⁷

Scenario 5

Careless trip in the penalty area

Penalty

A defender carelessly trips an attacker inside their own penalty area with the ball in play.

Correct call: Penalty kick and no card. Tripping is on the direct free kick list, careless is enough to make it an offence, and a direct free kick offence by a defender inside their own penalty area is a penalty. Careless carries no disciplinary sanction, so the penalty is the whole punishment unless the offence also denied a goal-scoring opportunity.

Common mistake: Assuming a penalty must come with a card. The card follows the manner of the offence or what it denied, not the location of it.

Law^3, ^10, ^11, ^12, ³⁴

The full rule

Almost every argument about a foul is really an argument about one of two questions, and the Laws keep them apart. The first is whether there was an offence at all. The second is what it costs. Law 12 names seven physical offences: charges, jumps at, kicks or attempts to kick, pushes, strikes or attempts to strike, tackles or challenges, and trips or attempts to trip. None of them is an offence on its own. Each becomes a direct free kick only where the referee judges it careless, reckless or made with excessive force, so a fair tackle and a reckless one are the same seven words apart. Those same three words then decide the card, which is why the sanction is not a second judgement on top of the first. Careless is a lack of attention or consideration, or acting without precaution, and carries no card. Reckless is acting with disregard for the danger to or consequences for an opponent, and must be cautioned. Excessive force is exceeding the necessary use of force or endangering an opponent's safety, and must be sent off. A second, shorter list is a direct free kick however it happens, with no careless or reckless test to pass: a handball offence, holding an opponent, impeding an opponent with contact, biting or spitting, and throwing an object at the ball, an opponent or a match official. A third list is only ever an indirect free kick: playing in a dangerous manner, impeding an opponent without contact, dissent and other verbal offences, preventing the goalkeeper releasing the ball, and the deliberate trick to circumvent the back-pass law. Where the offence is on the direct free kick list and the offender committed it inside their own penalty area, the restart is a penalty kick. And an offence only exists at all while the ball is in play: free kicks and penalties can be awarded for nothing that happens when it is out. Two things sit alongside the ladder rather than inside it. Some offences carry a card for what they are rather than for how hard they were, denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity above all, and a foul that is neither reckless nor forceful can still be a caution as a persistent offence or for stopping a promising attack. And where the offended team benefits from playing on, the referee may allow play to continue and come back to the card, which does not cancel it except where the Laws say so.^1, ^2, ^3, ^4, ^5, ^6, ^7, ^8, ^9, ^10, ^11, ^12, ^13, ^14, ^15, ^16, ^17, ^18, ^19, ^20, ^21, ^22, ^23, ^24, ^25, ^26, ^28, ^29, ^30, ^31, ^32, ³⁴