Putting the ball out of play
For those not used to watching football, there is a custom usually observed when a player goes down injured and doesn't get up. The team in possession puts the ball out of play, and once the stoppage is over, the other team give them the ball back.
Two questions about this:
1. is this normal in other sports? I suppose it's not really relevant in the major American team sports since there will be another stoppage in 5 seconds anyway. But how about hockey/ice hockey/lacrosse/netball/water polo or whatever other team sports you play or watch? I don't think this happens in rugby, and only occasionally in Gaelic football/hurling, but I don't know about other sports.
2. in the France-Switzerland match today, a French player was injured (I think late in the first half) while Switzerland had possession at the back. Instead of putting it into touch they passed it in their own half for maybe a minute without trying to move it forward. The crowd weren't happy. Is this unsporting? At first I thought this wasn't much different from putting the ball out of play, but in this case Switzerland would be happy with a draw and could wind down the clock a bit without increasing the amount of time added on.
|