Yes. The very play in question came up today... in a U12 Girls game! Travel soccer, but the 2nd-lowest divison of play, and I doubt I saw more than three consecutive passes all game. But it came up before the opening kick, when the blue team captains felt they had to tell me (after the coin toss) about their "trick" corner kick play. "I think I've heard this one before..." I said, as I described the play. Yup, that was it all right. I told them up front that if anybody yelled, "You take it!" that they were also telling me that the ball wasn't in play yet, and if somebody dribbled it out after that it would probably be a double-touch violation. I think the very fact that players/coaches feel a need to discuss this with the ref before the game smacks of the doubtful nature of the play. As it turned out, blue didn't get a corner kick all game and lost 7-2. So it was a moot point. I do make a distinction in soccer between verbal deception and physical deception. Soccer is a physical game, not a verbal one. Communication between teammates is necessary but no verbal communication is necessary with the opponent. For example, I don't feel "Mine!", in general, is trickery, although in some places the custom is different. However, I draw the line at verbal deceit designed solely for the opponent--for example, calling "Mine!" when nowhere near the ball in order to cause the opponent to cease playing it.
It's a tricky one, no doubt - there are arguments to both sides. In all honesty I don't really see the purpose of this trick play. I've had it come up twice - but both times the attacking team looked as confused as the defending team, so I don't know if the touch was intentional or not, or if it simply wasn't well practiced. Can't remember if it was verbalised or not. In the second instance I had a defender look at me quizzically, so in answer to the unspoken question I simply said 'it's in play'. (I wouldn't have said it if it wasn't for the questioning looks)
Trickery is illegal in a handful of situations. There is verbal trickery, as we have discussed and also the physical act of trickery. For example, it is considered "trickery" if a defender flips the ball up to head it back to his keeper and the keeper uses his hands. Sounds far-fetched, but as you know, the only time a keeper can use his hands on the ball is when the other team last touches it or it is headed back or deflected off from a teammate. The actual act of flipping the ball up to use your head to get the ball back to your keeper is a cautionable offense and punished by awarding the other team an indirect kick at the spot where the trickery (the kicking of the ball up to the head) occurred.
An example of the START of a trick corner happened at my game today vs U High... I dont think the ref noticed, but the guy that put the ball down touched it about the length of the ball and told another player to come and take it... seeing this, i went over to the ball and kicked it out for a throw right after the referee said to back away. For a moment there, I thought he was going to caution me, but instead he just said retake the corner... 1)Was it ok for me to go over there to kick the ball out? 2)If not, should the referee have cautioned me? 3)If I wasn't wrong should there have been a throw-in instead? 4)Or was the referee right into letting them retake the corner. In the position I was in, I did not like the ref's call, but once I thought it over, I agreed with his call. Any other opinions/comments?
The ball is in play once it is kicked and moves. When the opponent tapped the ball forward, that restarts play and thus the ball is fair game. There is no longer a 10 yard requirement. In your situation you reacted properly and the restart would be a throw-in for the opponent. The referee was either misinformed or not paying attention and incorrectly penalized your team by ordering the kick retaken. This is all based off the initial kick putting the ball back in play as a trick for a teammate to then dribble out from the corner. If that initial kick was not intended as the restart, then the referee did the correct thing in recognizing you had encroached on the 10 yards, but only mistakenly after it appeared the ball was in play, and thus simply allowed play to restart properly. It all depends on whether that first kick restarted the game.
I wasn't sure if it was intended to restart play, I just saw the player move the ball forward and asked another player to take it... they all looked pretty surprised when I kicked the ball out of play and they said they didnt touch it, which they did, they might have been trying to save themselves from a corner-kick. Thanx for the reply ~brhsoccer14
The rule book says "A player using a deliberate trick to circumvent the Law while he is taking a free kick, is cautioned for unsporting behavoir and shown the yellow card. The free kick is retaken." The rules in no way, however, define what a "trick" is, so that is open to the referee's interpretation.
That quote is the middle paragraph of Law 12, Decision 3. That Decision is speaking about trickery to circumvent the so-called "pass-back" rule. This particular paragraph is only to define the restart - retake the original free kick because play was never properly restarted. The trickery is deemed to have occurred exactly at the time of the "kick" - really a flick to the head or some other such trickery - and thus the ball was never in play.