Question:
Corner kick for team A. The corner kick is taken and cleared away. After the ball has left the penalty area and is in the air an attacker and defender become tangled up. The attacker and defender square up to each other and the defender attempts to kick the attacker from team A (they are in the penalty area). At this point the referee sees this blows the whistle and issues a caution to defender b for usb, and sends off the attacker for violent conduct.
What is the proper restart (the ball was near midfield in the air)?
If the defender made contact with the attacker is the restart different?
USSF answer (October 1, 2008):
And why is the defender not being sent off for violent conduct? We haven’t heard what the attacker did, but what the defender did is clearly violent conduct.
If what the attacker did also constituted violent conduct and preceded the attempted kick — under the Law that is EXACTLY like actually making contact — then the correct restart is a direct free kick for the defender’s team at the place where the infringement occurred. In this case, the location of the ball — as long as it was on the field of play at the time — is totally irrelevant.
