SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer 6 Second Rule

Nice trip to Summerville last night. Stadium and pitch were absolutely beautiful, nice people, and the like. Got confused on how to get there -- went to the high school instead of the stadium -- but got that cleared up.

One absolutely fascinating thing occurred during the match; I thought I'd give folks a heads-up in case they play with the same referees. This did not change the game in any way, shape, or form -- just interesting...something I'd never seen.

There's less than one minute left in the first half, score is 3-0, Lexington's keeper picks up the ball, looks around, and punts it up the field. Looked pretty normal. The referee blows his whistle, gets the ball from down the field, then puts the ball right outside the box for a free kick for Summerville. We in the stands were a little confused.

It turns out that the keeper for Lexington took 7 seconds to punt the ball but the keeper only has 6 seconds to punt the ball. And I'm telling you -- it was only a second over -- you could tell by when the whistle blew. Heard there was no warning to the players or anything -- just the call made.

There were no overt attempts to slow the game down (at least apparent from the stands), so all of this came a bit out of the blue. There were no warnings, no nothing -- just a call with less than a minute to go. When Summerville missed the free kick, the whistle was blown about 5 seconds after the ball was put back in play.

Anyway, just thought I'd give everyone a heads up. In 12+ years of watching soccer, I've never seen this called -- so I thought that it might be surprising to others out there as well and they might want to watch out for this if it's a habit with this particular referee. I looked it up; it's a valid rule (as I'm sure you folks all know better than me) -- but a truly fascinating call on it in terms of timing and the like.

This happened to DF this year too. I'm 99% sure it was at our pre-season game at Summerville last month. We were all confused too. Found out what the call was after the game.

should have been an indirect free kick from where the offense occurred. but i've not seen it called, either. heck, most hs refs don't even know of the law.

Shib,

In my eight years of officiating, I have only seen that call made once, near the end of a game, after the keeper had been verbally warned for delay. Very unusual that an official would make that call without a warning (NOT REQUIRED) or, it being an obvious attempt to delay the game.

Great win for the wildcats!!

I was at the game last night also and felt the ref should have gave the keeper a warning instead of the free kick..It happen to us in club ball but the ref had warned the keeper earlier and it should have been an indirect kick

Again -- I don't think anyone was trying to do anything wrong on the call -- I think it's probably just a characteristic of a referee (particularly if it happened to DF as well.)

Thanks to Summerville for hosting the game. I was impressed with Summerville's passing and accuracy and thought they had some fine players and were a well-coached team. I also thought that the referees called a good game -- was just surprised at this one thing. Live and learn...

As an experienced keeper, ive been called a few times on the 6 second rule. Most refs don't know this rule but will just warn you. However i've been called without warning before. Im not gonna stand in the box and count. I have also been called on it because I was on the ground for awhile waiting for a pile to clear and time I stood up I was called. That's an example of a misinterpretation from the ref. Ball placement is a different story. The ball is supposed to be placed outside of the 18 for an indirect freekick. But i've seen it called anywhere from a direct freekick outside the 18 to a indirect right inside of the 18 where the keeper was standing to a pk. Refs need to be more educated on this rule

I heard it applied to corner kicks as well. I heard a coach shout it (ahem!) from the opposite sidelines as we were setting up. Does it apply to indirect kicks as well? He's smarter than I am so I would think so.

It's just another one of those rules that very seldom gets strictly enforced; I think most officials work with the intent of the rule--to avoid delay--rather than the letter (or in this case, the number) of the law, counting off exactly 6 seconds and blowing a whistle. (When you think about it, 6 seconds seems a little arbitrary, doesn't it?)

I've never seen it called on the field, and I remember back to when the rule was changed from number of steps allowed to 6 seconds. Still, it's on the books, and it's fair game to enforce for anyone who wants to be a stickler.