I received a rather unusual query last week by e-mail. The e-mailer wanted clarification on a problem he had with the position of feet at a throw-in. He said that in Law 15 - under
procedure - it states that the thrower must have part of each foot either on the touchline or the ground outside the touchline. 'Does this mean,' he asks, 'that the thrower's feet can be on the pitch as long as his heels are still on the touchline?' 'My interpretation,' he continued, 'is that as long as the heels remain on the line, the remainder of the feet can be on the field of play, i.e. on the ground, on the pitch.'
The writer had apparently e-mailed the FA but had had no response. I was, of course, able to assure him that his interpretation was correct. Part of both feet must remain on the ground, on or behind the line, at the moment of releasing the ball. In the situation he described, however, with the heels on the touch line it would be a foul throw if either or both heels were raised even though part of his feet stayed on the ground.
My e-mailer said, 'If my interpretation is OK, why didn't law 15 just state, "the whole of the foot cannot be on the pitch"?' Sounds feasible but, as things stand at the moment, that isn't true.
To understand this you have to go to Law 1 - The Field of Play. There is one short but important clause that affects many other parts of the game as well as the throw-in. First of all, it says that the field of play is marked with lines. That may seem a little obvious but what it means is that it can't be marked with ruts for instance, which would be considered dangerous. There is no stipulation as to what colour the lines must be although they are invariably white.
Reading Referees campaigned some years ago to get the practice of marking lines with creosote banned as they considered that it could be dangerous if any player with an open wound went down on the line. Their campaign was not successful, so it's still an option but seldom, if ever, used these days.
All lines must be a maximum of 12 centimetres (5 inches)
wide and here is the important part, the lines belong to the
area of which they are boundaries. What does that mean?
Take as an example, the penalty area. If a defender commits a direct free-kick offence right on the line of the penalty area, the award would be a penalty, because the line is part of the penalty area. The same goes for all other areas on the field including of course the touchline and the goal line, which are part of the field of play. This affects when the ball is out of play. Law 9 - The ball in and out of play, says 'the ball is out of play when it has
wholly crossed the goal line or touchline, whether on the ground or in the air.' Because the line is part of the field of play, this means that the pitch extends to the very outside of the line, so for the ball to be out of play the whole of it has to be completely beyond the outside edge and that's a lot further than many people think.
If we go back to the question that my e-mailer asked, it highlights one of the idiosyncrasies in the laws of the game. A player can stand with the sole of his boots inside the field of play and his heels on the line and still be within the law. And yet because the line is part of the area it marks, he is in fact standing with both feet in the field of play when he makes his throw. My e-mailer's suggestion would at least be more logical.
Dick
Sawdon Smith