# Fouls · Football Level 2: Elementary

Football · Level 2: Elementary · Insporta Book (https://book.insporta.app/football/level-2/fouls/)

Fouls in Football (Level 2: Elementary) on Insporta: 100 sourced facts behind 10 tests. Covers: definitions of foul terms; numbers and key thresholds; and more.

What constitutes a foul: the seven contact offences, handball, holding, impeding; the three severity categories (careless / reckless / excessive force); direct vs indirect free kick offences; goalkeeper-specific offences.

## Test 1: Definitions of foul terms

- In football, an offence committed by a player against an opponent on the field of play, while the ball is in play, is called a 'foul'. Misconduct is a separate category covering cards-worthy behaviour.
- 'Careless' is the lowest level of foul severity — when a player shows lack of attention or consideration when challenging. No card is needed; only the free kick is awarded.
- 'Reckless' means the player acts with disregard to the danger or consequences for an opponent. The player must be cautioned with a yellow card.
- 'Using excessive force' is when a player exceeds the force needed and/or endangers an opponent's safety. The player must be sent off (red card).
- A direct free kick offence is one where the resulting kick can score directly. Most contact fouls and handball are direct free kick offences.
- An indirect free kick offence requires the ball to touch another player before a goal can count. The referee signals it by raising one arm above the head.
- Handball is deliberate contact, OR contact when the player has made the body unnaturally bigger with the hand/arm. The arm boundary is the bottom of the armpit.
- Dangerous play is an action that threatens injury, e.g. high kicking near an opponent's head, or heading at boot level. With contact it becomes a different offence; without contact it is an indirect free kick.
- Impeding is blocking an opponent's movement when not within playing distance of the ball. With contact it is a direct free kick offence; without contact it is an indirect free kick offence.
- A foul is an on-field offence by a player while the ball is in play. Misconduct is any offence (by players, substitutes, or team officials, on or off the field) that requires a yellow or red card.

## Test 2: Numbers and key thresholds

- Law 12 lists seven contact offences: charges, jumps at, kicks/attempts to kick, pushes, strikes (incl. head-butt), tackles or challenges, trips/attempts to trip. Each is a direct free kick if careless/reckless/with excessive force.
- Since the 2025/26 Laws, a goalkeeper who holds the ball for more than 8 seconds gives away a corner kick, not just an indirect free kick.
- At most free kicks, opposing players must stand at least 9.15 m (10 yards) from the ball until it is in play.
- Once a wall has 3 or more defenders, an attacker must stay at least 1 metre away from it.
- The Laws recognise three severity levels for fouls: careless (free kick only), reckless (free kick plus yellow card), and excessive force (free kick plus red card).
- For handball decisions, the arm is defined to start at the bottom of the armpit. Contact above this line (e.g. on the shoulder) is not a handball offence.
- Free kicks are taken from the spot of the offence. Exceptions: indirect free kicks awarded to the attacking team inside the goal area are taken from the goal-area line parallel to the goal line nearest where the offence occurred.
- After releasing the ball, the goalkeeper may not touch it again with the hand/arm until another player has touched it. Doing so results in an indirect free kick to the opposing team.
- Law 12 explicitly notes there is no specific number or pattern for 'persistent offences'. The referee uses judgement based on frequency and pattern.
- There is no formal warning system. Either the foul deserves a caution (yellow) or it does not. The referee may give an informal verbal word, but it has no procedural status.

## Test 3: Who decides what

- The referee is the sole authority for foul decisions. Assistants and VAR can advise, but the on-field call is the referee's responsibility.
- VAR has authority only in the four match-changing situations: goals, penalty decisions, direct red cards (not second yellows), and mistaken identity.
- An assistant referee can only signal — the on-field referee retains the final authority to award or wave off a foul.
- Handball is judged by the referee, applying the Law 12 criteria: deliberate handball, or hand position making the body unnaturally bigger.
- Cards are issued solely by the referee. VAR may advise on direct red cards, but the on-field decision rests with the referee.
- The referee decides the exact spot of a free kick, based on where the offence occurred.
- VAR advises the referee, but the on-field referee always makes the final call, whether from the review or the monitor.
- Advantage is the referee's call — based on whether the non-offending team can immediately benefit (e.g., still has the ball with a goal-scoring opportunity).
- Yellow and red cards can be shown to players, substitutes, substituted players, and (since 2019) team officials, both on and off the field of play.
- The referee retains authority over all participants — players, substitutes, and team officials in the technical area.

## Test 4: Allowed and forbidden

- A fair shoulder charge is legal when both players are within playing distance of the ball and neither uses their arms.
- Slide tackles are legal if the player primarily plays the ball and the challenge is not careless, reckless, or with excessive force. Dangerous slide challenges are punished accordingly.
- A goalkeeper handling a deliberate kick from a teammate is an indirect free kick offence, awarded from the spot where they handled it.
- The back-pass rule applies only to balls deliberately kicked with the foot/leg. A header, chest pass, knee pass, or thigh pass back to the goalkeeper is allowed.
- Accidental handball is normally not an offence. Exceptions: when the hand made the body unnaturally bigger, OR when an attacker scores immediately after accidental contact.
- Impeding an opponent without contact (when not within playing distance of the ball) is an indirect free kick offence under Law 12.
- Shielding the ball is legal when it is within playing distance of the player. Shielding only becomes impeding when the ball is out of playing distance.
- Biting or spitting at any person is a direct free kick offence and the player must be sent off. It falls under serious foul play / violent conduct.
- Kicking too high near an opponent's head can be deemed dangerous play (an indirect free kick offence), even without contact, because it threatens injury.
- A goalkeeper in control of the ball with their hands cannot be legally challenged — doing so is a direct free kick offence.

## Test 5: Consequences and sanctions

- A careless foul carries no disciplinary sanction — only the appropriate free kick (direct or indirect, depending on the offence type).
- A reckless foul earns the offender a yellow card (caution) plus the appropriate free kick or penalty kick.
- Excessive force is the most severe category of foul, always sanctioned with a red card as well as the restart.
- A direct free kick offence committed inside the penalty area by the defending team is always punished with a penalty kick.
- Indirect free kick offences inside the penalty area result in an indirect free kick — not a penalty. The kick is taken from where the offence occurred.
- DOGSO normally requires a red card. The 2016 'triple punishment' rule mitigates this if the foul inside the penalty area was a genuine attempt to play the ball — then a yellow is given alongside the penalty.
- Cynically stopping a promising attack by foul play is a cautionable offence — yellow card. This is below DOGSO, where the chance was clearer.
- Under the 2025/26 IFAB Laws, holding the ball for more than 8 seconds results in a corner kick to the opposing team — a change from the previous indirect free kick.
- Two yellow cards in the same match always combine into a red card and a sending-off.
- Violent conduct (excessive force or brutality not in a challenge for the ball) is always a sending-off offence — direct red card, regardless of whether the ball is in play.

## Test 6: Historical changes

- Cards (1970), the DOGSO red card (1990), the back-pass rule (1992) and the tackle-from-behind ban (1998) arrived in that order.
- FIFA introduced the rule that tackles from behind endangering an opponent's safety are automatic red cards in 1998, ahead of the World Cup.
- The 'body unnaturally bigger' criterion was added to Law 12 in 2019, alongside other handball clarifications.
- In 2019, IFAB clarified that a goal scored or directly created by an attacker's accidental handball is disallowed — even if not deliberate.
- Cards were introduced for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, devised by English referee Ken Aston. They standardised disciplinary signalling across languages.
- Goalkeeper time-wasting limits evolved from a step count (pre-2000), to 6 seconds (2000), to 8 seconds with a corner-kick sanction (2025/26).
- The 'professional foul' rule, requiring a sending off for cynically denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity, was established in 1990.
- The 2016 change mitigated 'triple punishment' — a defender who genuinely attempts to play the ball now typically gets a yellow card and a penalty, not a red card as well.
- The old four-steps rule for goalkeepers was abolished in 2000 and replaced with the 6-second rule (now 8 seconds).
- Tackling has always been one of the contact offences, but the wording was modernised over time. The 2019 update added clarity around 'challenges' as a category alongside tackles.

## Test 7: Exceptions and edge cases

- Outside the penalty area, the goalkeeper has the same handball restrictions as any other player. Handling outside the area is a direct free kick (and possibly a card).
- If the foul occurs before the offside player plays/challenges for the ball, the foul is punished. If the foul occurs after the offside player engages, the offside is called.
- The back-pass rule explicitly requires the kick to be deliberate. Accidental deflections off a teammate's leg do not trigger the rule.
- A continuous offence is judged by where it ends, not where it began — so a hold that started outside but continues inside the area gives a penalty.
- A goalkeeper handling outside the area to deny a clear goal-scoring opportunity gets a direct red card under DOGSO.
- A foul committed against a player who has already played the ball is still a foul. The free kick is taken from the spot of the foul.
- Free kicks can only be awarded for offences when the ball is in play. Out-of-play misconduct results in cards/discipline only — play restarts as it would have done.
- Referees consider proximity and time available when judging handball. A ball striking a hand from very close range, with no time to react, is generally not deemed an offence — unless the body was unnaturally bigger.
- When teammates commit simultaneous offences, the referee applies the sanction for whichever offence was more serious.
- A shoulder charge is only legal when both players are within playing distance of the ball — contact far from the ball is a foul.

## Test 8: Comparisons

- Each severity level adds a heavier consequence: careless gets no card, reckless gets a yellow, excessive force gets a red.
- Reckless earns yellow; excessive force endangers the opponent and earns red. The line between them is whether the force endangered the opponent's safety.
- Direct = goal can be scored straight from the kick. Indirect = ball must touch another player before a goal counts. Indirect is signalled by the referee's raised arm.
- A foul is on-field, ball-in-play. Misconduct covers cards by anyone (player, sub, coach), at any time (in or out of play, before or after the match).
- With contact = direct free kick. Without contact = indirect free kick. The presence/absence of contact is a key dividing line in Law 12.
- Football's Law 12 explicitly forbids holding, charging, jumping at, and pushing — all of which are part of rugby. Football tackles must aim at the ball, not the player.
- The same direct free kick offence becomes a penalty kick when committed by the defending team inside their own penalty area.
- Both a deliberate back-kick and a direct throw-in to the goalkeeper carry the same restriction: no handling, or it is an indirect free kick.
- Only a yellow card is a formal caution. Verbal warnings are at the referee's discretion and have no recorded effect.
- Both are red card offences. Serious foul play is in a challenge for the ball with excessive force. Violent conduct is excessive force or brutality NOT in a challenge.

## Test 9: Mini scenarios

- Playing the ball first does not excuse a forceful follow-through — the referee still judges and sanctions the contact that follows.
- Since 2019, an accidental handball by an attacker that leads directly to a teammate scoring is now an offence — the goal is disallowed.
- An arm raised above shoulder height is generally judged to make the body unnaturally bigger. This makes accidental contact a handball offence.
- A deliberate kick-back handled by the goalkeeper inside their area is an indirect free kick offence. No card unless DOGSO.
- Blocking an opponent off the ball is impeding (with contact = direct free kick; without contact = indirect free kick). Possibly cautionable if cynical.
- Denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity outside the area by a foul is a red card and a direct free kick from the spot.
- A genuine attempt to play the ball, even if it fails and fouls the attacker, is mitigated to a yellow card rather than a red — the 'double punishment' rule.
- In 2025/26, holding for more than 8 seconds = corner kick to the opposing team (no card unless persistent).
- Since 2019, team officials can be cautioned or sent off. Dissent or abusive behaviour from the technical area is a card-worthy offence.
- Cards are still given at the next stoppage even if advantage was played. The disciplinary action is independent of the play continuation.

## Test 10: Mixed review

- Reckless fouls earn a yellow card. Excessive force endangering safety would be red.
- Free kicks are taken from the spot of the foul (with specific exceptions inside the goal area).
- Contact offences (the seven contact fouls + handball + holding + impeding-with-contact) are direct. No-contact offences (dangerous play, impeding without contact) are indirect.
- Outside their own penalty area, a goalkeeper is treated like any outfield player — deliberate handball denying a clear goal-scoring chance is a red card.
- Two cautions in the same match always combine into a red card and a sending-off, with no reset between halves.
- For handball purposes, the arm starts at the bottom of the armpit; contact above this line is on the shoulder, which is allowed.
- The raised-arm signal must be held from the award of the kick until the ball touches another player, leaves play, or a goal becomes impossible.
- In 2025/26 the rule changed: goalkeepers may hold for up to 8 seconds; exceeding this gives the opposing team a corner kick.
- Cards apply to misconduct on or off the field. Substitutes in the technical area, team officials, and even players who have left the pitch can be cautioned.
- The 1992 back-pass rule was a direct response to time-wasting tactics at Euro 1992 — IFAB's intent was to keep the game flowing.

Sources: 

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