Trick Plays are unsportsmanlike?

[William Broome]

Played a match this past Sunday and attempted the ol' corner kick play where one player puts the ball down and then touches it forward and calls another player over there to kick it. The second player gets the ball and dribbles and tries to pass or shoot.

The ref called a foul and told me it was unsportsmanlike and that he could have carded one of my players. After the game, I asked him for a more detailed explanation and he told me that he didn't allow trick plays. I asked him where in the FIFA rules was that disallowed and he told me, "Oh, it's in there. You tried to deliberately deceive me. Unsportsmanlike covers many areas."

I went home and double checked all the FIFA rules just make sure and the only thing that came close was feigning an injury, which we didn't do.

Any insight???

[Jeffrey Geller]

I always make a point to tell the official before the match to pay special attention to our corner kicks.

At U8 and U10, most of our boys are not strong enough to play a ball into the box, so we always play short corners. The issue we usually have to deal with is teams putting defenders right on the corner and not giving us the required yardage. Player A plays Player B, overlaps him into the field, and then we're off.

In your situation, it sounds like the ref was out of line. If the referee saw and knew what you were trying to pull off, then he should not have had a problem with it because it is well within the LOTG. If he missed it, he might have been embarrassed and tried to cover himself by coming up with a bogus rule. To say he doesn't allow trick plays is ludicrous. Does that mean he doesn't allow any creativity on set pieces or allow players to use "fakes" when dribbling either?

[William Broome]

that is exactly what i was thinking

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[Mitch Mount]

sounds like your squad has that play down pretty smooth. great for them. keep up the good work coach, creative soccer is more fun to watch. hopefully developing creative players will be enough to put butts in the seats in american stadiums.

[Jeff Savage]

Sounds like the ref had no clue what he was doing. That is not a "trick play".

[Ian Barker]

Always lively discussion when we talk "gamesmanship, "sportsmanship", "creative coaching".

How about pretending to leave a corner, but touching it so it can be dribbled in?
Running picks on corners?
Freezing run up on a PK?

Ian.

[Kenneth Kincaid]

I think it depends on the age group; if you are doing this in a town league or a U12 travel league you would be better off playing a real short corner until your players can kick it far enough. If this is a big tourney and you have to win, the other team is at fault for not paying attention. Personally this is like the in bounds play in basketball where you bounce it off the defenders back and then lay it in, legal but bad form.
Ian as far as picks in soccer; you know they are obstructions, just because Barcelona does then on offense and falls down when they are done to them on defense doesn't make them legal, just like cynical diving.
The freeze on a PK? Don't the rules say you have to make a consistent run up to the ball? A freeze is then unsportsmanlike behavior.