What is a throw-in in football?
How is a throw-in taken?
The throw is taken from the point where the ball crossed the touchline. The thrower faces the field of play, holds the ball with both hands and delivers it from behind and over the head. At the moment of release, part of each foot must be on the ground, either on the touchline or behind it. Opponents must stand at least 2 metres from the point of the throw.
The thrower may not touch the ball again until another player has played it. There is also a goalkeeper restriction: a keeper may not handle a throw-in delivered directly by a teammate inside their own penalty area. Like a back-pass, handling it gives the opponents an indirect free kick.
What is a foul throw?
A throw that breaks the technique or location requirements is a foul throw, and the restart passes to the opposing team. The most common faults are releasing the ball with one dominant hand instead of both, delivering it from in front of the head rather than behind and over it, lifting a foot off the ground or stepping fully inside the pitch at the moment of release, and taking the throw clearly away from where the ball went out.
A foul throw carries no card; the only cost is losing the restart. At the top level that cost is real, though: possession changes hands over a single technical detail, and a defence under pressure loses a valuable chance to reset.
Can you score directly from a throw-in?
No. If the ball travels straight from a throw-in into the opponent's goal without touching anyone, the goal does not stand and play restarts with a goal kick. If the thrower somehow sends the ball directly into their own goal, it is not an own goal either; the opponents are awarded a corner kick instead. Any touch by any player on the way removes the exception and normal goal rules apply.
Because there is no offside from a throw-in, the long throw becomes a genuine attacking weapon. Teams with a specialist thrower load the penalty area and treat the delivery like a corner, producing regular chances from it, while a quick short throw is the simplest way to keep the rhythm of an attack alive.
This term in Shutli
Throw-ins look like minor events, yet they set the pulse of a match: a quick throw keeps pressure alive, a slow one cools the game down. Shutli's live analysis makes that rhythm visible in Live Tempo Analysis, and when a team stacks the box for long throws, the accumulating pressure registers on the Momentum chart as well.