WBA / MANU - Juan Mata

[Russell Jones]

It shouldn't be pot luck whether you lose possession or get the opponent booked by booting a FK at a player who is delaying the restart. Yet it is.

I think there's a risk of overcomplicating this. If a quick FK is taken and hits another player then one of two things will have happened. That opposition player will, in advance of the kick, have deliberately moved himself in such a way as to block the kick (stood on the ball, shifted position to get in front of the likely direction of flight etc). Or the opposition player will have simply held his ground and then (assuming he hasn't ignored an instruction from the ref to retreat) intercepted the ball. The former is a caution, the latter is play on