Soccer Rules-Fouls- Jumping

On a soccer field, most acts are fouls only by degree, becoming fouls only if done in an unfair manner. Players often bump into each other while running, or push past each while each is trying to avoid a collision. They may tussle over the ball, or leap to head a long pass and collide another player who is trying to do the same thing. They may kick at the ball and narrowly miss kicking their opponent?s shin. All of these actions are just part of the game, and most bodily contact is quite incidental to the players? attempts to win the ball.

Inevitably, though, players will mistime kicks, misjudge jumps, or overestimate the body?s ability to do what the brain encouraging it to do. It is up to the referee to decide when those actions will exceed the bounds of fair play.

Jumping
Players jumping to play the ball are often among the most exciting parts of a soccer game. Players jumping at their opponents, though, are committing in foul play and can cause serious injuries. As with most other fouls, jumping during the course of play is not a foul by itself. It only becomes a foul if done carelessly, recklessly, or with excessive force.

The referee has three main ways of judging players going airborne: watching their eyes, their arms, and their angle of flight. These clues can signal whether a jumping player is exercising due care in executing a leap, or whether one or both of them is being careless. Unfortunately, players aren?t always as careful as they should be...and when two players are both trying to make up in enthusiasm what they lack in positioning, the resulting collision can end up badly for one or both of them.

Like many other actions on the soccer field, jumping is a neutral act by itself. If done carelessly, it will be a foul. And if done in a manner calculated to injure another player, it will result in a caution and yellow card---or, in an extreme case, in a red card and send-off.

Jeffrey Caminsky, a veteran public prosecutor in Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. Both his science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the first volume in the Guardians of Peace (tm) science fiction adventure series, and The Referee?s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating, are published by New Alexandria Press, http://www.newalexandriapress.com.