THIS week I have to make a retraction of comments in the column a couple of weeks ago, when discussing what the Law now forbids under a recent addition to the taking of penalty kicks.

The new Law says regardless of whether or not a goal is scored from the kick, an indirect free-kick will be awarded, if the kicker on completion of the run-up, feints to kick the ball, (feinting in the run-up being permissible).

The kicker will also be shown a yellow card.

The Law as it is written, I said, clearly says the offence is to feint to kick the ball.

That is to pretend to kick the ball, to deceive the goalkeeper into diving to attempt a save, leaving the goal open for the actual kick.

However, some referees have taken action against kickers who merely stopped at the end of the run-up, which I felt was incorrect.

When the proposed new Law was first discussed by the International FA Board, both feinting and stopping were mentioned.

However, when the Law was introduced there was no mention of stopping, so I imagined it had been decided only to punish feinting.

However, as top referees took the opposite view, I thought I ought to seek the advice from the man best to settle the argument, Technical Director of the IFAB, David Elleray, my direct link with the Board.

He kindly replied, despite being in the UAE, assisting with VAR for the Asian Cup.

His answer was that the ‘spirit’ of the Law is that the kicker should take the kick at the end of the run-up.

The goalkeeper will anticipate this happening and if the kicker stops, then this in the spirit and intention of the Law is feinting.

So there we have it.

In my defence I said to Elleray it would be clearer if stopping was included.

Who know if anything will change?

Although to be fair, wording has been changed in the past, when I have pointed out it was unclear.