Learn About Two Basic States of Play in Football

Under the laws of football, there are two basic states of play during a game. The states are ball in play and ball out of play. A ball is in play from the beginning of each playing time with a kick – off until the end of the playing period. The ball is in play at almost every time except at two times. Those two times are when either the ball leaves the field of play or the game is stopped by the referee.

The play is restarted by one of the eight restart methods, when the ball becomes out of play. This also depends on how it went out of play. The eight ways are kick-off, throw-in, goal kick, corner kick, indirect free kick, direct free kick, penalty kick and dropped ball. Kick ball happens when you want to begin each period of play. Throw – in is when the ball has crossed the touchline. When the goal line has been crossed with scoring a goal, the goal kick is awarded to defending team while corner kick is awarded to attacking team.

Direct free kick and penalty kick are awarded to fouled team whereas indirect free kick to the opposing team following non-penal fouls. Dropped ball occurs when the referee has stopped play.

By: Bhavna Sharma

Content: Wikipedia