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Ball In Play or Out Of Play? - That Is The Question!

This is the Ball In Play Page of the How to Play Soccer-Soccer School on Spain-Football.Org.

Scroll down the page for the rules, tips and techniques, videos, book recommendations and lots more interesting stuff!

The situation moves from ball in play to ball out of play when it has completely gone over the line - either by air or on the ground - or when play has been stopped by the referee.

The rest of the time it's in play - including when it's rebounded off the referee himself, off the goalposts or crossbar, off one of the corner flags or even off the referee himself!

In This Section:

When Is A Foul Not A Foul?

It's extremely important to know whether the situation is ball in play or out of play because the consequences of a foul depend on this.

For example, imagine a forward strikes the ball in the penalty area, he misses and the ball goes out of play. At the same time, a defender has begun a particularly ugly sliding tackle against the forward.

In this case, the ref should signal a yellow card because it was an ugly gesture on the part of the defender but it is NOT a penalty because the ball wasn't in play when the incident happened.

You Are The Ref

When the ball rebounds off the referee into the goal, what decision should be taken?

In fact, everything depends on the preceding action

- If it happened after a throw-in or a corner, it's a goal.

- It's also a goal after a goal kick or a direct free kick (unless the goal was scored against the team that took the free kick).

- If it happened after an indirect free kick, the goal doesn't count and it's a goal kick - except if the goal was scored against the team that took the free kick. In that case, it's a corner.

Pretty complicated, hey?

Did You Know . . . ?

A player shoots towards goal and the ball is going to go into the back of the net. However, a foreign body - a spectator, a thrown object or an animal - gets in the way and stops the ball from going into the net.

The referee can't give the goal. Instead, he has to put the ball in play with a dropped ball.

The Ball Is Round

The Ball Is Round is an absolutely brilliant book. It's nearly 1,000 pages long and tells the whole story. What I most like about it is that it appeals to both the intellectual (ahem!) and the fan in me - you can take it on both levels.

For Intellectuals: The Ball Is Round traces the history of football from its pre-industrial roots in Britain and how it spread through the British Empire and also planted itself in all the countries where Britain had commercial contacts - Spain is a great example of this. It discusses the why and how of the global spread of football from a social, political, cultural and economic perspective. It even ends up with the grandiose claim - quite justified, in my opinion - that football challenges Christianity and McDonald's as a truly global phenomenen.

For Fans: It's full of fantastic and inspiring stoies - great games, amazing players, legendary managers - and everything is told in such exquisite detail. I just drool (and then take a few notes about what I can include on the website).

David Goldblatt has kept the ball in play and done a real service to mankind!

Click Here For The Ball Is Round and other great soccer books on Amazon.co.uk and Here for Amazon.Com

Other Sites With Soccer Resources

As I do more and more research on the Internet on football-related topics I come across an more and more pages with soccer resources.

Here are a few of the best ones I´ve found so far but with time this could turn into a complete section on different aspects of the art of playing and coaching.

So if you want keep the ball in play, check them out!

KITBAG really has just about the best range of football kit and equipment available on the Net. They're particularly good for exclusives. This link will take you to their Home Page.

Blast The Ball is quite simply the best video available for learning all about kicking a soccer ball – covers everything from keeping the ball in play techniques, aerodynamics, parts of the ball etc. The promotional video is certainly worth watching as it is a lesson in itself.

Total Soccer Fitness is a free fitness course that comes in five email instalments and is ideal for players, parents and coaches alike.

Soccer Tutor is a set of 250 Soccer Drills endorsed by Adidas, Umbro and Leyton Orient amongst others. If you coach a youth team and want to work on their soccer skills and keep the ball in play, this selection will keep you in ideas for season after season as your players advance from beginner to professional. It´s particularly useful if you plan on taking your your FA or UEFA coaching licence and even if you're only interested watch the demo video – it's excellent. The guy that does the voiceover is so obviously a football professional. Game of two halves, innit?

The Fastbreak Soccer Practice Book Although not quite as intuitive as Soccer Tutor also contains Soccer Drills, this ebook is worth having a look at if only for the free Training Schedules available in PDF format.

Elite Soccer Coach is a very handy guide for football coaches and comes with two more ebooks on Fitness and Formations.

Keep The Ball In Play With Blast The Ball

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