Why is there a semi-circle in the middle of a soccer pitch?
349873
Ther is no semi-cirle in the middle of a soccer pitch..It's a circle, and at the kick off only two players are allowed inside it ..The two that kick off.
1129153
One of the main reasons is that FIFA have clamped down on handball incidents.  Therefore by keeping the hand away from the side of the body there is less chance of the player "accidently" moving his arm to touch the ball as it goes past.
690858
None whatsoever. I asked a similar question, and one answerer suggested that fifa like it the way it is because it enables them to favour certain teams and put it down to the ref. This does kinda make sense.
676221
They are used as a visual 'marker' for the referee and his / her assistants to determine offsides. You can't be offside if you begin running from your own half. On a muddy pitch the post helps to spot the halfway line.\nThe referee's assistants also take a half of the pitch each to run the line, so this is their demarkation.
695578
i know for a fact, glenavon football club in northern Ireland had qualified for Europe for the first time in ages. the uefa official who was carrying out routine checks before the start of the game discovered one set of goalposts was 2 inches below regulation height. the embarrassing fact meant since the posts were erected 2 years previously teams were playing into different sized nets.
634298
If you are not interfering with the play, it is not off-sides. But, even if you don't go for the ball, but you are impeding a defender or the goalkeeper it can be considered off-sides because then you would be interfering with the play.
450920
Unlike American football and baseball, where you CAN keep the ball, in soccer, you have to throw it back.  Too bad...I'm going to my first match next year in England, and would LOVE to have a ball come my way and keep it!  For sentimental purposes ya know! :)
668948
Very simply--there has to be two defenders between you and the goal unless you are behind the ball. The timing is when the ball is played by one of your team mates.
1025353
Presumably either a) a defender played the ball back, or b) the ball wasn't totally out before the goalie touched it - in the view of the referee.\n\nOn the line in association football is not out of play, unlike for instance rugby union, where on the line is out.
1131299
Well, a circle does have a side.  It is a continuous set of points that are all equidistant from a common point, thus giving it one side.
669669
If you saw the games there was so much paper and debris on the field it looked more white than green.It was done to provide contrast for officials of the game to make sound dicisions and for the goal keepers to help prevent injury.
438998
to make it more sensible as a whole.\nbefore the change, if the play was around the half way line and one of the attacking players was in the far corner asleep, the ref would HAVE to call offside. it was getting a bit silly. This is supposed to make the game fairer and faster
615917
A simple version of the offside rule in soccer\nwould be: \n\n1. A player is in an offside position if:\n   -he is nearer to his opponent's goal line\n    than both the ball and the second last opponent.\n\nA player is not in an offside position if:\n\n   - he is in his own half of the field\n   - he is level with the second last opponent\n   - he is level with the last two opponents\n\nNow a player in an offside position is only\npenalized if, at the moment the ball touches \nor is played by one of his team, he is, in the\nopinion of the referee, involved in active play\nby:\n\n- interfering with play\n- interfering with an opponent\n- gaining an advantage by being in that \n  position.\n\nIf the ball is received directly from\n a goal kick, throw-in and corner kick,\n there is no offside offence.\n\nThis is probably the simplest way of \nexplaining the offside rule in soccer.
992373
A football field is actually slightly longer (120 yards vs. 110-120 yards for a soccer pitch) but the soccer pitch is much wider (70-80 yards vs. 53 1/3 for an American football field).
676437
Almost a coicle!\nEach side would subtend an anhle of slightly more than 1.5degrees so it is very close to a circle. I don't think it has any official name.
36091
what has this got to do with soccer? =)
302214
What does this have to do with soccer?