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I believe Cecil's question is more complicated than that, 3sport. There is a play ruling about a defender who stands only 3 or 4 yards away and makes no attempt to move. The ruling is that if the kick strikes him, without him attempting to play the ball, it is a legal play. What is the difference between this and standing 3 inches away from the ball? At some point the offended team is being disadvantaged by the presence of this defender. Also we all know that these players stand there on purpose to gain a tactical advantage.
I handle it this way: no matter how close the defender is I do nothing until the attacking team asks. If they take a quick kick, without asking for ten, I make the proper ruling if the kick hits the defender who is too close based upon what his actions were. However, if the attackers are prevented from taking the kick quickly because of a defender's presence and have to ask me to move him back, I will caution the defender if he was not making an attempt to respect the proper distance. For me this means standing less than 6 yards away, and not moving backward. They certainly know that this is too close, so I consider it unsportmanlike behavior to purposely violate the rules.
Lastly, I should mention that I tell both teams this in the pregame. I tell them that they have to show each other proper respect and that if they don't make a legitimate effort to retreat from a free kick (I judge this to be at least 7 yards away) they will be carded. They don't give me any problems after this.
[Edited by Nevadaref on Aug 13th, 2003 at 04:46 AM]
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