Keentune

Soccer Laws of the Game curriculum

23 chapters
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173 concepts
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free
Everything the adaptive question bank can teach and test in Soccer Laws of the Game, from foundations through advanced practice. Work through it in order, or start practising and let the questions find your level.
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A free 15-minute primer — the mental model, the mistakes beginners make, and what to practise first.
L1–2. Field & ball
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Areas, the penalty mark and arc, corner arcs, flags.
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Ball spec; the defective-ball restart.
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Goals and the crossbar; a displaced goal.
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Pitch dimension ranges and why the Laws give a range rather than one size.
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The technical area: who may occupy it and how many may stand at once.
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Playing surface, markings and objects on the field; when a pitch is unfit for play.
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A broken crossbar or displaced goal — suspending play and how it restarts.
L3. The players
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Eleven a side, minimum seven; abandonment below the minimum.
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The procedure; competition-set counts; return substitutions where permitted.
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Extra persons and outside agents; a goal scored with an extra person on the field.
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Players sent off before/after kick-off — who may be replaced.
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Named substitutes, competition-set counts, and the sub who enters without permission.
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Changing the goalkeeper: the required procedure and the sanction for skipping it.
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Team officials' conduct and the cards that may be shown to them.
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Outside agents, objects thrown from outside, and the restart each produces.
L4. Equipment
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Compulsory equipment; the safety principle; goalkeeper distinction.
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The jewellery ban and inspection.
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Colour requirements so players, goalkeepers and match officials stay distinguishable.
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Undershirt and undershort colour rules; slogans and statements on equipment.
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Head covers, face masks and protective gear — the safety test that decides legality.
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Leaving the field to correct equipment and the procedure to re-enter.
L5–6. The referee & other officials
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Powers and duties; the whistle; disciplinary authority.
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Advantage criteria and the window to bring the play back.
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Restarts after a referee error (the Law 5 landscape).
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Assistant referees, the fourth official; VAR only where adopted.
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Decisions on facts connected with play are final; the narrow window to change one.
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Managing injuries: when to stop play, remove the player, and allow the return.
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Several offences at the same moment — sanctioning the most serious one.
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When the whistle is required and when using it damages the flow of the match.
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Suspending and abandoning a match, and who holds that authority.
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VAR where adopted: the clear-and-obvious threshold and the reviewable categories.
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The Laws' protection clause — match officials are not liable for injury or damage.
L7. Duration
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Two 45-minute halves; the interval.
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Allowance for lost time; who decides.
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Extending the half for a penalty kick.
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What counts as lost time and why the announced minimum may be exceeded.
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Drinks and cooling breaks and how they feed back into added time.
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An abandoned match and what the competition rules — not the Laws — decide afterwards.
L8. Start & restart
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The kick-off; a goal direct from kick-off; the coin toss.
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The modern one-player drop ball (stamped); where it restarts.
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Kick-off procedure: player positions, ball movement, and the taker's second touch.
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Drop ball inside the penalty area vs elsewhere; who receives it and who must stand off.
L9. Ball in & out of play
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The whole ball over the whole line — in the air or on the ground.
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Ball off the referee — the drop-ball restart.
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The ball stays in play off a post, crossbar or corner flag — and the exception for an official.
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Play stopped for an injury, an extra person or an object — choosing the correct restart.
L10. Outcome
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A goal: whole ball over the line between the posts.
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Deciding a winner: kicks from the penalty mark procedure.
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When an apparently good goal cannot stand (an offence, an extra person, contact with an official).
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Kicks from the mark: who is eligible and the reduce-to-equate principle.
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Offences during kicks from the mark: retakes, encroachment and the goalkeeper's position.
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Extra time and other tie-breakers as competition rules rather than Laws.
L11. Offside
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Nearer than the ball AND the second-last opponent, in the opponent's half.
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Interfering with play, interfering with an opponent, gaining an advantage.
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Judged when a team-mate plays or touches the ball.
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No offside direct from a throw-in, goal kick, or corner.
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Deliberate play vs deflection/save by an opponent — reset or not.
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The indirect free kick and where it's taken.
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The goalkeeper as one of the two rearmost opponents.
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Offside position is not an offence — the position test, then the involvement test.
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Hands and arms are excluded when judging offside position, for every player.
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A defender off the field still counts; an attacker who has left the field of play.
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What counts as a save, and why a save does not reset the offside phase.
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Second-phase play and when a fresh offside position is established.
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Leaving the field during play and the caution for returning without permission.
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A defender's deliberate handball does not reset offside — the exception inside the exception.
L12. Fouls & misconduct
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The direct-free-kick list; careless vs reckless vs excessive force.
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The handball principle (year-stamped wording lives in the vertical guide).
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Dangerous play, impeding without contact, goalkeeper offences (six seconds, back-pass handling).
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Where the offence occurred; goalkeeper offences in the area.
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The cautionable offences (YC).
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Serious foul play, violent conduct, spitting/biting, DOGSO, offensive language, second caution.
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DOGSO vs stopping a promising attack; the penalty-area double-jeopardy reduction (stamped).
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Charging, tackling and challenging: what makes contact fair or foul.
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Holding and pushing offences, including persistent holding at set pieces.
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The goalkeeper's handling rights inside the area and the loss of them outside it.
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Scoring or creating a chance with the hand or arm — accidental contact still counts.
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Offences against team-mates, substitutes, team officials or match officials.
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Goal celebrations that are cautionable even when the goal itself stands.
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The second caution and why the yellow is still shown before the red.
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Offences before kick-off, at half-time and after the final whistle.
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Throwing an object at a person and the restart that follows.
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Simulation, dissent, delaying the restart and failing to respect the required distance.
L13–14. Free kicks & penalty
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Direct vs indirect; the signal; ceremonial vs quick.
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Attacker distance from a 3+ player wall (stamped).
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Ball on the mark, GK on the line until kicked, encroachment outcomes, legal vs illegal feinting, the kicker's second touch.
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Free-kick procedure: a stationary ball, when it is in play, and the taker's second touch.
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A free kick to the defending team inside its own penalty area and the opponents' distance.
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The indirect-free-kick signal and how long the referee must hold it.
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Penalty kick: the identified kicker, everyone else's required position, and when the ball is in play.
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The encroachment outcome table: attacker, defender, both, and the goalkeeper's offence.
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The kicker's second touch, and the outcome when the ball rebounds from post or keeper.
L15–17. Throw-in, goal kick & corner
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Technique (both feet, over/behind the head, both hands); no goal and no offside direct; the foul throw.
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In play when kicked and moving; playable inside the area; opponents outside until in play (stamped).
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Placement, the second-touch rule, opponent distance.
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Throw-in offences: opponent distance, an illegal delivery, and the taker's second touch.
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Goal-kick offences: retake vs indirect free kick, and the opponent who stays inside the area.
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Corner-kick offences and why the corner flagpost may not be moved.
D1. The field & the ball — detail
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Natural, artificial and hybrid surfaces; the colour and marking requirements.
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A line belongs to the area it bounds — the practical consequence for every boundary decision.
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What the goal area governs and what the penalty area governs.
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The penalty mark and the arc — what the arc is actually for.
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The corner arc, corner flagposts, and the optional respect-distance marks.
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Goal size, post shape and the anchoring requirement that makes a goal legal.
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Advertising and commercial marks on the field, nets and goals.
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Ball specification: size, weight, pressure and the quality marks.
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Replacing a defective ball and where play restarts afterwards.
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Additional balls around the field and what happens when one enters play.
D2. The players' equipment — detail
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Shin guards: material, coverage and the requirement to be covered by the socks.
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Tape or material applied over the socks — the colour-matching rule.
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Slogans, statements and images on equipment; what compulsory equipment may not carry.
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Electronic performance and tracking systems, and permitted communication equipment.
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Goalkeeper caps, gloves and the distinguishing-colour requirement.
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A bleeding player and bloodstained equipment — leaving and returning.
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An equipment infringement need not stop play — the correct handling sequence.
D3. The referee's powers — detail
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Authority from arrival at the ground until departure after the match.
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Disciplinary power from the moment the referee enters the field for the pre-match inspection.
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Changing a decision before play restarts or before leaving the field of play.
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Stopping play for spectators, outside agents or objects on the field.
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Serious injury vs a minor one; the play-on default and its exceptions.
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Letting play continue when stopping would punish the offended team.
D4. Other match officials — detail
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The assistant referee's listed duties and what each flag position communicates.
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The fourth official: substitutions, added time and technical-area control.
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Additional assistant referees and goal-line technology where they are used.
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The VAR review process where adopted: on-field review vs VAR-only review.
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Acting on misconduct the referee did not see but another match official did.
D5. Restarts — the shared principles
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The eight restarts and which kind of stoppage produces each one.
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When the ball is in play at each restart — the differences that decide offences.
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The second-touch offence across every restart and its handball variant.
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The required opponent distance at each restart and how it is enforced.
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A restart taken incorrectly: retake, change of restart, or let it stand.
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The stationary-ball requirement and the retake when it is ignored.
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Restarts inside the goal area: where an indirect free kick to the attacking team is taken.
C1. Rulings — offside decisions
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Positioned offside but not involved — play on.
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Line-of-sight and challenging rulings.
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Rebounds off post/keeper/opponent.
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Deliberate-play resets on real sequences.
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Level with the second-last opponent — onside.
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Position judged in the opponent's half only.
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Rebounds off a goalkeeper's save vs a deliberate play by an opponent.
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Offside once a throw-in, goal kick or corner has been played on by a team-mate.
C2. Rulings — handball & fouls
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Supporting arm, unnatural position, goal-scoring hand rulings.
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Classifying real offences into the right restart.
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Careless/reckless/excessive-force gradings.
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Keeper handling and release rulings.
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Holding vs impeding with and without contact.
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Deflection off a team-mate or the player's own body before reaching the arm.
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High foot, lowered head and playing dangerously without contact.
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Speed, intensity and point of contact when grading a challenge.
C3. Rulings — misconduct
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Which caution applies (persistent, dissent, delay, distance).
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SFP vs VC classifications.
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Distance, direction, defenders, control — applied.
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Penalty + card combinations in the area (stamped).
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Cards to team officials.
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Choosing between a caution for stopping a promising attack and a send-off.
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Mass confrontation: identifying instigators and sanctioning proportionately.
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Misconduct by a substitute, an already sent-off player, or a team official.
C4. Rulings — restarts
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Choosing the correct restart and team on real stoppages.
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Location rulings (place of offence vs where ball was).
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When a restart is retaken (encroachment, keeper off line).
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Managing the quick free kick.
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Encroachment on a free kick and whether it earns a caution.
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Which restarts can score directly, and what happens when one enters the wrong goal.
C5. Rulings — advantage & management
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When advantage beats the whistle.
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Bringing it back within the window; the delayed card.
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Advantage near the penalty area.
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Advantage applied on a DOGSO offence and the card that must still follow.
C6. Rule differences (US awareness)
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IFAB vs NFHS high-school soccer deltas.
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IFAB vs NCAA deltas.
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Re-entry and substitution-count differences.
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Stopped clock, period length and the horn: IFAB vs NFHS/NCAA.
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Temporary dismissal, disqualification and re-entry differences across US codes.
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Offside application differences between IFAB and the US high-school and college codes.
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