"The penalty against the kicking team has been eliminated if a free kick goes out of bounds between the goal lines, untouched inbounds by the receiving team, in a revision of Rule 6-1-8."

Am I reading this right? Does this now mean the kicking team can kick the ball out of bounds between the goal lines without a penalty...?

tpaul,

• Free kicks going out of bounds are a foul if untouched by the receiving team. 6-1-8.

This is the revision that I have received. I do not have a new bible, but I have heard that they have revised the rule so that if team B touches a free kick at anytime before it goes out of bounds, it is no longer a foul.

In the past when a free kick went out of bounds, it was important to know who touched it last before it went out of bounds. If A touched it last before going out of bounds, it was a foul (even if B touched it). If B touched it last, then there was no foul.

Now, it only matters if B touched it. If B touches it at anytime and then it goes out of bounds there is no foul. If B never touches the ball and it goes out, now we have a foul, with the usual penalties.

Of course this is all guessing, since I do not have a new bible yet and have not seen a casebook either.

Erick

I too don't have the new book yet, but l do believe that the kicked ball untouched by R that goes out of bounds results in no foul by A. Only if A is to be the last to touch. In all my games last year with this play, R wound up declining and started with a snap.

The rule was changed to say that no free kick shall go out of bounds untouched by R. The
only change was that if K is the last to touch it (but R did touch it) it is no longer a foul. If
the free Kick goes out of bounds after being touched by R it is put in play at the inbounds
spot.
Now just to confuse things. The fed made a mistake on their web page. They said it
would no longer be a foul if a free kick went out of bounds untouched by R. They did
correct this mistake, but not for about a month. Thus giving many officials the wrong
idea. But when you get you new rule book it will say untouched by R.