Compelling Soccer

Expanding on the David Ngog furor from the past two days, I thought I'd go into a little exploration of the FIFA guidelines on fouls. Partial credit goes to my roommate for this idea; he broke out the FIFA rule book when he was discussing how the rules were applied in FIFA 10.

Anyway, I found the section on free kicks and ended up posting a smaller summary of my take as a comment on the SBI forums. Basically, the rules show why this certainly wasn't an egregious dive and could have been called a penalty either way.

This is the section on direct free kicks:

A direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any
of the following seven offences in a manner considered by the referee to be
careless, reckless or using excessive force:
• kicks or attempts to kick an opponent
• trips or attempts to trip an opponent
• jumps at an opponent
• charges an opponent
• strikes or attempts to strike an opponent
• pushes an opponent
• tackles an opponent
A direct free kick is also awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any
of the following three offences:
• holds an opponent
• spits at an opponent
• handles the ball deliberately (except for the goalkeeper within his own
penalty area)
A direct free kick is taken from the place where the offence occurred
(see Law 13 – Position of Free Kick).