Throw-in wording

[Ganajin]

back in 1858...Sheffield Rules.....A ball in touch is dead, consequently the side that touches it down must bring it to the edge of the touch and throw it straight out from touch.....

Yes, the throw-in went to the first team to touch the ball once it was out of play: which is why (over a century after the Law was changed) we still refer to "touch" and "touch-lines". A similar "first to touch the ball" situation happened if the ball crossed the goal line (but not a goal). If the defender touched it first, they got a kick in, similar to a goal kick. If an attacker touched the dead ball, they brought it 15 yards out and had a kick at goal (with defenders standing behind goal line.). Interestingly, when the Association and Rugby codes split apart in 1863, both kept this arrangement. Soccer soon dropped it, and after some fiddling around with alternatives, ended up with the goal kick or corner arrangement we have today (largely borrowed from Sheffield rules). Rugby however kept the idea of touching the ball behind the line to win "a try" at goal. The touch down scored nothing, unless the goal was then scored. Thirty years later they started to give points for both "try" and goal.

 

[one]

The throw-in went to the first team to touch the ball once it was out of play? I think most players in my games believe that rule is still in play when there is a close call

 

[bloovee]

Why do you also take a corner from ON the field of play? Or a free kick? A Goal Kick? Kick off? Or a dropped ball? Because every single other restart, without exception takes place ON the field of play. It would actually be a far better question to ask why you can also take a throw in from wholly OFF the field of play...

That would be easy if you could only take a throw in from off the field of play - because an outfield player can't use his hands to touch the ball within the field of play.

As it is, by the time it's left the outstretched hands the ball can be a metre inside the field of play...

I'm still not sure I've ever seen a definitive answer to what this means: "The ball is in play when it enters the field of play. If the ball touches the ground before entering, the throw-in is retaken by the same team from the same position." Given that the ball can be held in the field of play before and during the throw, you could argue it's more nonsense - but of course it's to be understood as when it leaves the hands in the act of throwing. But, if taken from some way behind the line, it is presumably in play once the edge of the ball is over the outside edge of the line. But does that really mean the ball can touch the ground outside the line (with base outside and edge inside) and it's in play?

Given the 1925 - 1932 rules, I do wonder if this is simply to do with available space. I've seen park pitches where there's little more than a ball's width between the pitches, and under the 1925 rule you'd almost have to be on the adjacent pitch to take a throw! Sometimes I think there must be logic to IFAB's thinking over the years, at others I think "You don't know what you're doing!"

 

[Peter Grove]

I'm still not sure I've ever seen a definitive answer to what this means: "The ball is in play when it enters the field of play.

I've always thought this could be easily fixed by just adding a couple of words - as in, "The ball is in play when it has both left the player's hands and entered the field of play."

Sometimes I think there must be logic to IFAB's thinking over the years, at others I think "You don't know what you're doing!"

This.