FIFA Forced to Intervene and Immediately Ban 'Donkey Free-Kick' Routine

A unique set-piece routine dubbed the ‘donkey free-kick’ was outlawed by FIFA after it was used in a match between Coventry and Everton.

Set-piece routines are commonplace in modern football, with players trying their best to gain small advantages.

In recent years, several new techniques have been developed by both the attacking and defending teams.

The so-called ‘draft excluder’ is a particularly favourite for defending sides with a player lying flat below the traditional wall to stop low free-kicks from the opposition.

But creative set-piece routines go way back.

55 years ago, in 1970, English First Division champions Everton and Coventry faced off at Highfield Road.

And what appeared to be a regular free-kick situation quickly turned into a moment a magic when Coventry midfielder Willie Carr stood waiting to strike the ball – or so it seemed.

Instead of trying to curl, smash or place the ball past the Toffees goalkeeper Andy Rankin, Carr gripped the ball between his heels and flicked it up towards the onrushing Ernie Hunt, who volleyed it past the Everton goalie.

“An original piece of football impudence," acclaimed John Motson on Match of the Day.

The genius strike later won BBC Goal of the Year for the 1970/71 campaign.

However, the routine, which, according to The Independent, was also known as the “Nutcracker” when Hunt tried it again while playing for Bristol City, was later banned by world football’s governing body, FIFA.

Meanwhile, the updated IFAB Laws of the Game constitute that gripping the ball and flicking it up does not count as a sustained contact with the ball.

Rules during the 1970-71 campaign explained that “the ball shall be in play immediately it has travelled the distance of its own circumference and is beyond the penalty area”.

According to Billy Edgar in the ‘Back of the Net: 100 Golden Goals’, the decision to ban the technique was related to the fact that the ball was not considered to have moved its full circumference before the second touch by Hunt.

A video of the free-kick recently recirculated on social media, and fans offered their thoughts.

One said: “When your technique is so good that they had to ban it. Incredible.”

Another added: “Completely unrelated, but I would love to see a team from that time play a modern team from the Prem or even Championship."

A third claimed: “Quite creative actually.”