Berks & Bucks confirmed that heading ban for U12 applies County Cups, but league games are not part of the trial.
From the email they sent out this morning:
Good Morning All
Apologies for the blanket email.
A referee has dropped out of a U12 County Cup match tomorrow at Mursley. Is anyone free to replace him.
This match is part of the FA Heading trial in youth football, amendment to the LOTG as Follows –
The law changes for these trials are dictated by IFAB and state:
1. Deliberately heading the ball is an offense punishable by an indirect free kick. This will also mean the introduction of indirect free-kicks in mini-soccer in this circumstance.
2. The indirect free kick is taken at the point where the ball was deliberately headed, except where a player of the defending team deliberately heads the ball in their own penalty area, the indirect free kick is taken from the penalty mark. (IT IS NOT A PENALTY KICK BUT AN INDIRECT FREE KICK FROM THE PENALTY SPOT)
3. Deliberately heading the ball is not a cautionable (yellow card) or sending-off (red card) offence unless it:
- Stops or interferes with a promising attack (yellow card)
- Denies the opposing team a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity (red card)
- Occur often enough to be considered “persistent misconduct” (yellow card)
