High Foot & Scissor Kick

A raised foot near an opponent is dangerous play where the player is trying to play the ball and the action threatens injury, which needs no contact and gives an indirect free kick. A scissors or bicycle kick is permissible provided it is not dangerous to an opponent.^4, ^5, ^6, ⁷

Key points

✓There is no high-foot rule. The offence is playing in a dangerous manner, and the boot is just the commonest way of committing it^4, ^5, ⁶
✓The player must be trying to play the ball. A raised boot with no ball in the picture is a challenge or violent conduct instead^1, ^6, ⁹
✓No contact is required: an opponent pulling out of a header for fear of injury is the offence, not a near miss⁶
✓The restart is an indirect free kick^4, ⁵
✓A scissors or bicycle kick is permissible provided it is not dangerous to an opponent, so the attempt is lawful and only this one is in question⁷
✓Where the foot makes contact it is usually serious foul play, on either of two independent grounds: endangering the safety of an opponent, or excessive force or brutality^2, ^3, ⁸
✓The Laws draw no height line. "Shoulder height", "head height" and "high foot" all appear nowhere, so any height rule you have been taught is a working line and not the Law⁶

Read the full rule

Scenarios

Scenario 1

Player raises boot to play ball near opponent's head

Foul

A player raises their boot high to play a dropping ball. An opponent stooping to head the same ball pulls away to avoid being kicked, and there is no contact.

Correct call: Indirect free kick for playing in a dangerous manner. The player was trying to play the ball and the opponent was prevented from playing it for fear of injury.

Common mistake: Waving play on because there was no contact. The definition covers exactly this, and it does so in the words "preventing a nearby opponent from playing the ball for fear of injury".

Law^4, ^5, ⁶

Scenario 2

Bicycle kick in crowded penalty area

Foul

A player attempts a bicycle kick inside a crowded penalty area and their swinging leg passes close to two opponents' heads.

Correct call: Indirect free kick if the attempt was dangerous to an opponent, which a leg swinging past two heads normally is.

Common mistake: Allowing it because bicycle kicks are legal, or penalising it because they are dangerous. The Laws give the permission and attach one condition, and the condition is about this attempt and these opponents.

Law^6, ⁷

Scenario 3

High foot makes contact with opponent's head

Red card

A player raises their boot for a high ball and the studs make contact with an opponent's head as that opponent moves in to head it.

Correct call: Sending-off for serious foul play. This is a challenge for the ball, and studs into a head endanger the safety of an opponent, which is a sufficient ground on its own without anyone having to call the force excessive.

Common mistake: Giving only the indirect free kick because the player was going for the ball. Going for the ball is what makes it a challenge, and a challenge that endangers safety is the offence.

Law^2, ^3, ⁸

The full rule

The Laws contain no rule about a high foot. What they contain is playing in a dangerous manner: any action that, while trying to play the ball, threatens injury to someone including the player themselves, and which includes preventing a nearby opponent from playing the ball for fear of injury. A raised boot near an opponent's head is the commonest way that happens, which is why it has a name in the game and none in the Laws. Two things follow. The player has to be trying to play the ball, so a boot raised at someone with no ball in the picture is a challenge to be judged as careless, reckless or excessive force, or violent conduct where there was no challenge for the ball, and not this offence at all. And no contact is needed, because the opponent withdrawing from a header for fear of being kicked is itself named in the definition. The restart is an indirect free kick. The scissors or bicycle kick has its own sentence, and it is a permission: permissible provided that it is not dangerous to an opponent. So the attempt is lawful and the question is only whether this particular one endangered someone. Where the raised foot does make contact, the offence usually stops being this one. A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent must be sanctioned as serious foul play, and so must one that uses excessive force or brutality. Those are two independent grounds rather than one compound test, which matters because a boot into a head can endanger safety without anyone judging the force excessive. The height at which a foot becomes dangerous is not a line the Laws draw. Shoulder height, head height and waist height are absent from the document, so the working line below is Ruleside's rather than the Laws': in practice a foot raised near an opponent's head while they are playing the ball is dangerous, and the same foot at knee height with the opponent upright is usually not.^1, ^2, ^3, ^4, ^5, ^6, ^7, ^8, ⁹

The law · numbered to match the references above

Law 12 · 1. Direct free kick

1A direct free kick is awarded if a player commits any of the following offences against an opponent in a manner considered by the referee to be careless, reckless or using excessive force:

2If an offence involves contact, it is penalised by a direct free kick.

3Using excessive force is when a player exceeds the necessary use of force and/or endangers the safety of an opponent and must be sent off

Law 12 · 2. Indirect free kick

4An indirect free kick is awarded if a player:

5plays in a dangerous manner

Law 12 · Playing in a dangerous manner

6Playing in a dangerous manner is any action that, while trying to play the ball, threatens injury to someone (including the player themself ) and includes preventing a nearby opponent from playing the ball for fear of injury.

7A scissors or bicycle kick is permissible provided that it is not dangerous to an opponent.

Law 12 · Serious foul play

8A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play.

Law 12 · Violent conduct

9Violent conduct is when a player uses or attempts to use excessive force or brutality against an opponent when not challenging for the ball, or against a team-mate, team official, match official, spectator or any other person, regardless of whether contact is made.

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