Soccer: Does a "speech play" rule exist?

[his holiness nb]

When I played as a teen (a while back now) the refs in the Dublin leagues always gave a free against you for this.

Whether in the rules or not, I wouldnt argue, its sneaky stuff.

Clarify whats sneaky?

Do you think that me calling to a team mate to leave it (with his name) is sneaky?

Apologies, an opposition player calling for you to leave it in the hope you will mistake him for a teamate and do as he says. thats whats sneaky.

[haranguerer]

HHNB, I posted the message you are referring to. It was very tongue in cheek, and I was trying to demonstrate how ridiculous the rule is. Calling an opponents name to leave it is undoubtedly more sneaky than just calling 'leave it', yet while the ref will blow for the second, he wont for the first. Hows he supposed to know the names of all the players? As far as hes concerned hes just heard a valid call. Anyway, imo any decent player should have an awareness of who is around him, and shouldn't obey calls unless there is no doubt where it came from. I would draw a strong distinction between trying to confuse your opponent for an advantage, and physically fouling/diving to gain advantage from the referee; in that I see the first as 'cute' and have a admiration for it (with a wee 'tut tut'), but I have no time for the 2nd.

[his holiness nb]

I would draw a strong distinction between trying to confuse your opponent for an advantage, and physically fouling/diving to gain advantage from the referee; in that I see the first as 'cute' and have a admiration for it (with a wee 'tut tut'), but I have no time for the 2nd.

I wouldnt approve of either, but I would see diving or fouling as worse.

[haranguerer]

well to further blur the lines, a quote from 'best things heard at a match':

"Another one I heard was a young Damien Reilly marking Nudie Hughes. The game throws in and Nudie says to him - "fine big crowd on the hill today Damien". Damien has a look and turns back to the game and there is the bould Nudie 30 yards away banging the ball over the bar!"

This is similar imo, but i think most ppl would applaud this - "the opponent should have known better, etc". I certainly smile at it. I think there is no harm in trying tactics like this, most sport is a battle of wits as much as anything else. With regards calls, should not the opponent know better than to leave it for someone on the oposition team? 

[David McKeown]

In relation to the rule about leaving the field of play when I was doing the refereeing course they used to say that if a player leaves the field the can not return without the permission of the referee unless at all times they were off the pitch they were trying to get back on.  This was so that if a player knocked the ball inside a defender and ran round the outside of him and left the pitch doing so he wouldnt be penalised for it.