Corner kick
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A corner kick is a method of restarting play in a game of association football. It was first devised in Sheffield under the Sheffield Rules in 1867. It was adopted by the Football Association in 1872.
A corner kick is awarded to the attacking team when the ball leaves the field of play by crossing the goal line (either on the ground or in the air) without a goal having been scored, having been last touched by a defending player (including the goalkeeper).
In most cases, the assistant referee will signal that a corner should be awarded by first raising their flag, then using it to point at the corner arc on their side of the pitch; however, this is not an indication of which side the kick should be taken from. The referee then awards the corner by pointing to the relevant arc.
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[edit] Procedure
When taking a corner kick, the football is initially placed so that some piece of the ball touches the corner arc closest to where the ball went out of play. The corner arc is located at the intersection of the goalline and touchline and has a radius of one yard. All defending players must be at least ten yards (9.15m) from the ball until the corner kick is taken. A corner kick is taken as soon as it is kicked and moves.
A goal may be scored directly from a corner kick, but only against the opposing side. An own goal may not be scored. It is physically impossible to be penalised for being in an offside position direct from a corner kick, because all other players in the attacking team are behind the ball when it is played.
[edit] Infringements
Opposing players must retire the required distance as stated above. Failure to do so may constitute misconduct and be punished by a caution (yellow card).
It is an offence for the kicker to touch the ball a second time until it has been touched by another player; this is punishable by an indirect free kick to the defending team from where the offence occurred, unless the second touch was also a more serious handling offence, in which case it is punishable by a direct free kick or penalty kick, as appropriate.
[edit] Strategies in taking and defending a corner
A corner kick may result in a good scoring opportunity by playing the ball to teammates in front of the goal. This play is known as a cross and then the ball is often played by a "header".
The defending team may choose to form a wall of players in an attempt to force the ball to be played to an area which is more easily defended. This is not done often, however, because defending players must remain at least 10 yards from the ball until it is in play.
The defending team also has the choice of whether to instruct a player to place themselves beside one or both of the goalposts to provide protection to the goal in addition to the goalkeeper himself. Some teams will only place a player on one post, while it is unusual for a team to not have a player beside either post. The thinking behind placing a player beside a goalpost is that it means more of the goal area is protected and there is no loss in the ability to play an offside trap because it is physically impossible for the attacking team to be offside from a corner when it is taken.
The defending team also has to decide how many players they need to defend a corner with. It has become increasingly common for defending teams to withdraw every player into a defensive area. Some coaches argue against this strategy because it means that the attacking team can commit almost every player to attacking the goal, except the goalkeeper and perhaps one defender. Withdrawing all players into a defensive area also means that if the ball is cleared from an initial cross, it is more than likely that the attacking team will regain possession of the ball and begin a new attack.
[edit] Short corner
An alternative strategy for the attacking team is to take a short corner. The ball is kicked to a player located within ten yards of the kicker, to create a better angle of approach towards the goal. An example of this was when Maniche scored a spectacular goal for Portugal against Holland in Euro 2004.
[edit] Scoring a goal directly from a corner
Some players have managed to score directly off a corner, even though it appears to be physically difficult to achieve this. Players who have scored direct from a corner include Marco Bresciano (against Reggina), Artim Šakiri (against England), Álvaro Recoba, Shunsuke Nakamura (against Honduras) and Juan Sebastián Verón.
This type of goal is sometimes called an Olympic goal, because in a match between Argentina and Uruguay played in Buenos Aires on October 2, 1924, the Argentine player Cesáreo Onzari scored the first goal of the match directly from a corner kick. The goal was referred to as Olympic by fans since then because the Uruguayans were the Olympic champions. This expression is used in almost all of Latin America and even in some parts of Europe.
[edit] Using corner kicks as a tie-breaker
The number of corner kicks awarded to each team has been suggested as an alternative method of tie-breaking to the current penalty shootout method. The theory behind this suggestion is that the team which during the course of play has been awarded the most corner kicks is likely to have dominated play, forcing their opponents to make more high-risk tackles and their goalkeeper to make more saves in which he was not able to gain possession of the ball but rather merely deflect it across the line outside of the goal or over the crossbar. The use of corner-kick counts as a tie-breaker has not been approved by the International Football Association Board, and as such is not used in any high-level competition. Furthermore, this method should never be used at any level of eleven-a-side football due to Law 10 (The Method of Scoring); only the methods stated there are allowed to determine the result of a game.
Some scoreboards for high school and college venues in the United States have statistics for fouls, shots on goal, and corner kicks earned. On American television such statistics are shown periodically during play for international, MLS, and other major televised matches.
[edit] Throw-in anomalies
A corner kick is also awarded if the team with a throw-in in a defensive area throws the ball into their own goal without the ball having been touched by any player. In this case, the referee must call a corner kick and not an "own goal", which it physically appears to be.
A mistake relating to that rule appeared to be committed by referee David Elleray during an English Premier League derby game between Birmingham City and Aston Villa during the 2002-03 season. An Aston Villa defender (Olof Mellberg) threw the ball in towards his goalkeeper (Peter Enckelman), who seemed to miss the ball completely and the ball went into the net. Elleray gave a goal to Birmingham even though it appeared that Enckelman may not have touched the ball, although television replays were inconclusive. If Elleray had determined that Enckelman had not touched the ball, he should have awarded a corner kick to Birmingham[1].
Similarly, if a team with a throw-in in an attacking area throws the ball into the other team's goal, it should be called a goal kick by the referee rather than a goal. An example of this happened in a match between Hearts and Livingston in the Scottish Premier League during the 2005-06 season[2].
