The Ref Stop

Amendment to Law 12.

C

chaide

New Member
Regional
Hello, this is my first post ever.

I used to be a football player in the regional leagues in Spain, many years ago.

I've been thinking about a possible amendment to Law 12 for a very long time. I would like to know if someone proposed something similar before 1992 or after.

The idea would be to allow a goalkeeper to handle a ball played by a team-mate, but requiring the goalkeeper to play the ball long after this. (The intention won't be to return to the speculative pre-1992 football.) The goalkeeper would have two options: either to play short with his feet, or play long using his hands or feet.

The idea is to allow greater variety in playing styles, not relying only on continuous pressing and ball possession, and allow a more vertical and direct style of football. Besides, for amateur or informal football, where there is often no referee, the simplicity of the rule could be a very good thing.

The proposed wording would be:

“An indirect free kick is awarded if a goalkeeper, inside their own penalty area:

  • touches the ball with the hand/arm after releasing it and before it has touched another player; or
  • after touching with the hand/arm a ball played by a team-mate, releases the ball into play, and the ball is first touched by a team-mate in the goalkeeper’s own half of the field of play.”
(The indirect free kick shall be taken from the place where that team-mate first touched the ball, subject to the special circumstances described in Law 13.)


If this is not the right forum to post this kind of message, please moderators feel free to delete it. I greatly appreciate your opinions, even the most offensive ones. Thank you in advance.
 
The Ref Stop
Always open on here to suggestions about possible changes to the Laws, but from my personal viewpoint your proposal would not add anything to the game.
Too many scenarios would make it difficult:
1) All players back to defend, no-one upfield to receive a clearance
2) Young players who can't reach the halfway line with a kick from the penalty area
3) Ball from goalkeeper goes to opponent, who drives forward with it. Your wording would not allow a challenge, as that would be the "first touch by the team-mate" (Probably not what you meant, so your wording would need consideration)
4) Most clubs like to build from the back, so a long punt is counter-intuitive.
Others will doubtless add their thoughts.
Thanks for your interesting post.
 
I would argue that if there is one law change that should be left well alone it should be the "back pass" one. Arguably the most successful and universally accepted law change to ever be made, I really don't think there is any issue to fix. And with the current fixation of playing out from the back there's no way on earth anyone would approve a law change that forces playing long.
 
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