Question Number: 22378

Law 17 - Corner Kick 10/27/2009

RE: high school Adult

stewart jerdo of moriah, ny usa asks...

if a person kicks a corner kick and the ball while in the air breaks the out of bounds plane but lands in play is ball cosidered out of bounds

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Simply breaking the plane is not enough. The ball remains in play until all of the ball completely crosses beyond all of the line (including the outside edge of the plane of the line). When all of a ball in flight completely crosses the plane of the line, it does not matter where the ball lands.

The Assistant Referee is positioned along the goal line on a corner kick so that she can observe the position of the ball in flight.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

If so much as a millimetre of the ball is above the line with the rest of the ball out of play, the ball is still in.

The ball is not out until the entire ball has wholly crossed the line - this applies to all boundary lines.

Naturally it can be difficult for the referee to judge this with complete accuracy.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
When all of the ball crosses the outside edge of the boundary line it is out of play. Where it lands makes no difference.
These calls can be quite difficult to make in the air as the referee or assistant has to look to down the line, form a mental picture of the vertical plane of the outside edge of the line extending upwards and then view the ball and make a decision on whether all of the ball breaks that plane line. Some there will be no doubt with such as the banana kick that goes way out and comes back in again. That is out of play. The more difficult one is the one that is straight along the line. If its marginal and it lands in play with the AR unsure the 'best' decision can be to just let play continue.
Also TV shows action replays, freeze frames, slow motion on some line decisions. The AR does not have the benefit of that technology and he/she has only the naked eye and his/her judgement to make a call. The vast majority of out of bound calls are clear cut decisions.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Unlike American pointy-ended football, in the world game of football (soccer here in the USA), the breaking of the plane of the goal line with the ball is not a scoring event. As my colleagues note, in the world game, the entire ball must leave the field for the ball to be out, and must leave the field between the goal posts and under the cross bar for it to be a goal.