Corner Kick Question

[JThompson]

Hello all.

I was officiating middle school level soccer when the following situation arose:

Team A has corner kick. The player taking the corner kick was accompanied out of bounds by a teammate. This was brought to my attention by the assistant referee. I asked the teammate to stand on the touch line, to which Team A's coach replied that such positioning was legal.

I made it clear that I would not allow two players off of the field in a situation that was not in "the normal course of play", and that this was actually a cardable (sp.?) offense for leaving the field unauthorized. The player stepped on the touch line, and play continued.

My question is, who was right in this instance? Do the Laws of Soccer detail who may not position themselves out of bounds at certain times during the match?

Just wanted to know for future reference.

John

[kansassoccerref]

I'm going to assume that the two players were next to each other, both preparing to participate in the corner kick. If that's the case, then it would have been prudent to allow play to continue without interruption. Some teams have set corner plays that involve one player touching the ball (to put it into play) and another then dribbling along the goal line to improve positioning and angles for a chip to the mouth of the goal.

If the players were within a couple of yards of the field, this would be a trifling situation which, while not within the Laws of the Game, were within the Spirit of the Game. The art of calling soccer is to move from literal interpretation of LOTG to working within the spirit of the game.