Strange football rules: Remembering when free-kicks were moved forward 10 yards for dissent

Football is a pretty simple game.

Even if you’ve never watched the sport in your life, you can sit yourself down in front of the TV and understand the aim of the game pretty quickly.

The team who scores the most goals in the opposition’s net wins the game.

Okay, there are numerous laws that players and teams have to follow throughout the 90 minutes but you don’t need to know the intricacies of every rule to enjoy the beautiful game.

These days, though, even the most ardent of football fans get a bit confused with the rules at times.

With the introduction of technology and the desire for the sport to keep evolving, the suits at FIFA and UEFA appear keen to introduce new – or tweak current – laws every season.

For example, semi-automated offside will be used at the World Cup this year.

However, introducing new rules in theory is very different from actually implementing them at the highest level of the game.

A prime example of this occurred ahead of the 2001/02 season as the FA attempted to curb the level of dissent shown towards their referees. They came up with the novel idea of moving a free-kick forward 10 yards if the opposition protested against the official.

Dissent in the Premier League was getting out of control with one shocking example of referee Andy D’Urso being confronted by angry Manchester United players, led by Roy Keane, following the award of a penalty to Middlesbrough. The FA believed this would solve the issue.

It was used solely in English football for four years and it did appear to reduce the amount of abuse officials recieved. We’ve dug out a number of times in which the new rule was put into practise. It would turn a free-kick that was considered too far out to score directly from into a