Indoor Soccer US

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THE EASY GUIDE TO SOCCER RULES

The title is not so original, truly I took it from a website that was promoting a book about soccer rules for parents.
They say :
"It sure would be nice to know the soccer rules.
Have you ever said that? I haven’t either.
Seriously though, most parents in the US have never played the game and don’t know much about the rules of soccer – kind of like trying to watch hockey in Alabama".

They talk about parent in the outdoor games, but I think that many of their advises applied to indoor soccer players, where there are a lot of people that never before touch a ball, but the first thing that the learn is how to complain.
A few paragraph I took from it, and are very useful in indoor games:

"No Hands, please

I bet you knew that one. Most people who know nothing about soccer still know that you aren’t supposed to use your hands unless you’re the goalie.

A couple of points to clarify.

First, the rule for a hand ball includes using any part of the body from the tips of the fingers to the shoulder.

Second, the proper way to look at this soccer rule is that a player cannot “handle” the ball. A ball that is kicked and hits a player’s hand or arm is not a hand ball. This means that the referee must use his or her own judgment to some extent in determining whether or not a hand ball is accidental contact or a purposeful attempt to gain an advantage.

Believe it or not, there is also a situation in which the goalie cannot use his/her hands. This is sometimes called the back-pass rule. Goalkeepers cannot pick up a pass that came directly from one of their teammates. In this case, the goalkeeper must use his feet. Infraction of this soccer rule will result in an indirect kick from the point of the infraction.

Fouls

The common rule of thumb on fouls is “If it looks like a foul, it probably is.”

Too true. A player cannot kick, trip, jump at, charge, strike, push, hold, or spit at an opponent.

So what’s the problem?

Soccer can be a physical, contact sport when two opposing players both want the soccer ball and no parent likes it when little Johnny loses the ball and ends up on the ground!

“Foul!” cries the parent. “Little Johnny was pushed!”

What you need to know as a parent is that bumping or going shoulder-to-shoulder while competing for a ball is not a foul until the hands or elbows come up. This is a bit of a judgment call and not all referees will call it the same way. Some soccer rules are actually not black-and-white.

Remember though, the referee is ALWAYS right.

Two-touch Rule

A player cannot touch the ball twice in a row when putting the ball in play. You will see this called many times in youth soccer. It applies everywhere. You will see it frequently on kick-offs or direct and indirect kicks. If a player barely hits the ball and decides to take another swipe at it, that is a two-touch.

This also applies to throw-ins. A player cannot throw the ball in and then kick it. Nope. No way. No can do."

I did not read the book yet, but I found useful many paragraph.

The website is located at: http://www.soccer-for-parents.com/soccer-rules.html

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