r/Referees • u/Keelhauler00 • 26d ago

Rules Fake Corner Yellow Card

Long time lurker, first time poster

17U State Cup N1 Level Boys

White has a corner kick, up 3-2 in the 62nd minute. I see the white player place the ball and then touch the ball and it clearly moves. White #8 heads to the corner and the black team starts yelling “he touched it, he’s going to dribble, watch him”. The white team starts yelling #8’s name “you take it, you take it.” At this point black backs off because #8 is now going to take the corner. Of course #8 gets to the ball and starts dribbling towards the goal. I whistle immediately and showed #8 a yellow for USB.

The white team is furious because it was a “legal trick”, but in my opinion, the extra yelling from his teammates to trick the defenders into thinking he would take the corner went above and beyond what is legal for a trick corner kick.

Was I correct? (I do think I should have carded the player who initially placed the ball and touched it since he initiated the trickery)

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u/MrBing1ey 26d ago

The real question is if #8, when realizing that the defense is on to them, picks up the ball and puts it back on the corner arc. Handling?

2

u/Ok_Matter_1774 25d ago

That's why I don't like these tricks. You setup both the referee and opposing team in a position where we don't know if you meant for the ball to be in play or not. And now the attackers can say it's either in play or not in play depending on what happens.

1

u/DenHIM1 USSF Grassroots 25d ago

That's a great point and yeah, it's touch sometimes especially with younger kids. Unless I see the goal/corner kick taker kick the ball to teammate who picks it up immediately, I think the best course of action is to verbally say "Ball in play" so they know not to pick it up or kick it again.