A&H

Is the ball in or out of play ?

S

shaunsouthern

New Member
Hi

The images below show a football, from above near the corner of the pitch. Law 9 says that "The ball is out of play when: It has wholly crossed the goal line or touch line, whether on the ground or in the air."

Has the ball "wholly crossed the goal line" or "wholly crossed the touch line" ?

If the lines are extended then it hasnt, yet no part of the ball is over any part of the pitch.

Is the ball in or out of play ?


Thanks

Shaun
 

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shaunsouthern said:
Hi

The images below show a football, from above near the corner of the pitch. Law 9 says that "The ball is out of play when: It has wholly crossed the goal line or touch line, whether on the ground or in the air."

Has the ball "wholly crossed the goal line" or "wholly crossed the touch line" ?

If the lines are extended then it hasnt, yet no part of the ball is over any part of the pitch.

Is the ball in or out of play ?


Thanks

Shaun
Click to expand...
That's partly what the corner flags or for, to make sure your question is irrelevant!
 
Last edited:
Law 1: The field of play must be rectangular [...] These lines belong to the areas of which they are boundaries. Only the lines indicated in Law 1 are to be marked on the field of play.

Lines are not permitted to be extended as per your illustrations, thus the ball is out of play.
 
Practically, I don't see how this could happen since, as @Big Cat already said, the corner flag prevents this from happening. But it is an interesting academic exercise. The ball hasn't crossed either line entirely, but has crossed both lines partially in such a way as to make the ball go off the field of play. I think that the golden consideration of "football understanding" requires us to either give a throw in to the attacking team, or a goal kick to the defending team.
 
Thanks for the replies. I guess technically it could still happen if the ball dropped vertically to that position, thus avoiding the corner flag.
It will probably happen next week now and be the subject of a big VAR debate :)
 
Same principle for in or out of the penalty area isn't it?
If the ball does not overhang the boundary line then it is not considered within the area the boundary line belongs too.
I don't really see how adding some additional lines changes whether the ball has crossed over the actual lines?
 
RyantheRef said:
Practically, I don't see how this could happen since, as @Big Cat already said, the corner flag prevents this from happening. But it is an interesting academic exercise. The ball hasn't crossed either line entirely, but has crossed both lines partially in such a way as to make the ball go off the field of play. I think that the golden consideration of "football understanding" requires us to either give a throw in to the attacking team, or a goal kick to the defending team.
Click to expand...

The ball could go out over the top of the corner flag.
OP scenario is near impossible, although I've seen Football League corner flags a whole line width from the corner point.
 
JamesL said:
I don't really see how adding some additional lines changes whether the ball has crossed over the actual lines?
Click to expand...

the point of the extension is that it shows that the ball has neither actually crossed the goal line nor the touchline, but has partially crossed both so that it is off the F.o.P.
 
RyantheRef said:
the point of the extension is that it shows that the ball has neither actually crossed the goal line nor the touchline, but has partially crossed both so that it is off the F.o.P.
Click to expand...
Not buying that.

Imagine the lines are the edge of a table... And you drop the ball where the ball is positioned in the diagram.
Will the ball land on the table or off the table? Then translate that to is the ball on the field of play or off the field of play.
 
I use the goal line for the exercise but the same applies to the touchline.
The goal line is limited in length. It has an end point (no extensions allowed unlike something like an offside line). Once the ball has wholy crossed over the end point, then it is considered as wholly crossed the goal line.

Another way to explaining this is that the Field of play is a limited size bound by the outer edges of goal lines and the touchlines. If any part of the ball is in the FOP then the ball is considered in the play. In OP simply no part of the ball is in the FOP therefore the ball is out of play.
 
JamesL said:
Not buying that.

Imagine the lines are the edge of a table... And you drop the ball where the ball is positioned in the diagram.
Will the ball land on the table or off the table? Then translate that to is the ball on the field of play or off the field of play.
Click to expand...
Of course it's off the field of play, and I've already said as much. But that doesn't change the fact that the ball has not wholly crossed either of the boundary lines.
 
RyantheRef said:
Of course it's off the field of play, and I've already said as much. But that doesn't change the fact that the ball has not wholly crossed either of the boundary lines.
Click to expand...
See my post. It has because it has crossed the end point of both the boundary lines.
 
RyantheRef said:
If it has crossed both boundary lines at the same time, what is the restart?
Click to expand...
That is why we have corner flags so we can confidently give either TI or GK/CK. In the rare occasion that the flag is missing for some reason and it's very close to both, the key is not which restart you give, it's how well you sell it.

It helps if you do futsal because it happens a lot more often in futsal :)
 
one said:
That is why we have corner flags so we can confidently give either TI or GK/CK. In the rare occasion that the flag is missing for some reason and it's very close to both, the key is not which restart you give, it's how well you sell it.

It helps if you do futsal because it happens a lot more often in futsal :)
Click to expand...

Maybe that's my issue 😂
 
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