10 CARDINAL RULES OF SOCCER
RULE 1 - 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.
Put another way, the referee must determine if the play was Ball to Hand (legal) or Hand to Ball (illegal).
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.
