When is a Throw In back in play

[bjm]

I officially refereed my second match yesterday. A player took a throw in and there was some debate amongst the players whether the ball had come in to play at all. I asked the CAR and he said the ball landed on the line and went out again. I gave a throw in to the opposition at the point where it had bounced back out of play. Was this correct? Quite a few of the players seemed to think that the ball had not entered the field of play as it had not crossed the line.

 

[Trip]

If it bounced on the line then it was in play. In order to be off the FOP the whole ball must be the other side of the whole line.

 

[bjm]

Thanks. That's what I thought. But there were quite a few that stated this and even the opposition were unsure when I awarded the throw in to them that I was doubting what I had done.

 

[one]

Ball is in play when any part of it 'touches' (crosses) any part of the line. You can have 99.9% of the ball outside of the field of play but the 0.1% on the line means the ball is in play.

 

[JamesL]

It is a very very rare circumstance that the ball does not come into play given most players stand on the line and throw in towards the pitch.

But to answer your question the law15 says:

The ball is in play when it enters the field of play

So as others have said, as soon as any part of a correctly thrown ball has crossed the outside edge of the boundary line, it is in play.