Many years ago my grandfather, who was not a great football follower, asked me (as a teenager) why, when a defending team put the ball over the goal line, was a corner kick given.
"Well," I replied, "that's the rule: if the defending team puts the ball over the goal line, a corner is awarded."
I had missed his point.
"Yes," he said, "but why is a corner given? Why is play restarted by kicking the ball in from the corner of the pitch?"
I couldn't answer him. I had no idea and still don't. I suppose someone came up with the idea as being a good way of giving the attachking team a chance to score when the defending team had knocked the ball out of play past their own goal line.
Perhaps a more pertinent quesion for football would have been: why do players throw the ball in with their hands when the ball has gone out over the touch line? That is a bit odd.
About 15 years ago there was an experiment at a low level (approximately Isthmian League level) where they played a season kicking the ball rather than throwing it. Presumably it didn't prove a success, or we'd all be doing it now.
Odd rules when you examine them, but maybe they show that not all is wrong in football, and some things are just right.
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