Die-hard football fans would like to believe that they know everything there is to know about the sport – whether it be the history of a tournament’s champions, recent transfers between teams, or the laws of the game.

The latter, in particular, is a certainty given the number of hours avid football fans have put into either attending games or watching their teams on TV.

Some laws are obvious. When a player is offside, it’s usually black or white thanks to current technology. The same can be said for the majority of handballs, too, even if VAR has done its best to complicate things.

Yet, it seems that not all of football’s laws are as easy to understand, as highlighted by a question that was asked on the popular British teatime game show The Chase.

Hosted by Bradley Walsh, the quiz show sees four contestants square off against a ‘chaser,’ who is an expert in all things general knowledge.

However, in this instance, even the accomplished Shaun Wallace found himself stumped by what may be the most difficult sports question in quiz show history.

Free-Kick Question Confuses Everybody

REUTERS/Phil Noble

In a law that even those involved on the show questioned the legitimacy of, the contestant who stepped up to the plate was asked: “In football, if a direct free kick goes straight into a team’s own goal, what is awarded to the team in the opposing goal?” Watch the clip below:

While the answer may appear obvious at first, the potential answers throw a spanner in the works. The contestant, named Francesca, had the option of either a) Goal, b) Indirect free-kick, or c) Corner to choose from. But having admitted that she wasn’t a football fan, she was taking a stab in the dark.

Ordinarily, this would give the chaser the perfect opportunity to close the gap needed to catch the player. However, when the camera panned to Wallace, nicknamed the ‘Dark Destroyer,’ he looked as baffled as anyone. The 66-year-old was open-mouthed and shook his head while whispering, “I can’t remember,” but the best reaction came from presenter Walsh.

After Wallace’s admission, Walsh, who was a promising young player that was once on the books at Brentford, chimed in with his own thoughts on the question:

Admittedly, the television personality is right in that the chances of the situation happening are incredibly slim. Understandably, it would make sense to think that the correct answer would be a goal, as that would be the sufficient punishment for the mistake.

As a panic guess, Francesca opted to go for answer c) Corner, to which Walsh scoffed at her. Incredibly, though, she was right – much to the shock of everyone. It also turned out that Wallace had also guessed the correct answer, though he played it off as if he knew all along.

What the FA’s Laws of the Game Say

Reuters/Andrew Boyers

Due to the eyebrow-raising nature of the answer, many people wanted to find out for themselves and resorted to checking the FA handbook to see if it was true.

And yes, under Law 13: Free Kicks, IFAB’s 2026-27 laws state that:

• “If a direct free kick is kicked directly into the opponents’ goal, a goal is awarded.”
• If an indirect free kick is kicked directly into the opponents’ goal, a goal kick is awarded.
• “If a direct or indirect free kick is kicked directly into the team’s own goal, a corner kick is awarded.”

The archaic law will likely never be changed due to the fact that the chances of an own-goal being scored from a direct free-kick are so slim that it will never be argued in the future.

However, it still remains one of the strangest rules the game has ever seen, up there with the likes of the ‘silver goal’ or the ‘advance 10m rule’.

Following SummerSlam Night 1, WWE Chief Content Officer, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, responded to the recent criticism that the same stars are consistently featured in the top spots, leaving the rest of the roster and younger talent with limited opportunities to break into the main event scene.

The discussion gained traction in recent weeks after Damien Priest admitted he was tired of seeing the same names occupy the top spots on the card. Many fans resounded with his comments, arguing that the likes of Oba Femi, Bron Breakker, and Carmelo Hayes deserve the same level of opportunity that established names such as Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Cody Rhodes have received over the years.

The debate intensified after the main event of SummerSlam Night 1, where Femi defeated Brock Lesnar inside Hell in a Cell in what many viewed as a defining moment for the former NXT Champion. With WWE continuing to elevate several younger stars, Triple H was asked to respond to Priest’s comments during last night’s post-show media scrum.

Triple H’s Response About Lack of New Talent Being Pushed

“If you’re the guy that wants to take the spot, it’s frustrating when there are guys above you that have the spot,” he said.

The Game then went on to dismiss the idea that talent should receive a push because it’s “their turn,” and believes that instead, they should earn the audience’s support before being given the position.

“You really have to do something. The narrative of, ‘It’s my turn.’ There are no turns. That’s not how it works. You earn the spot. If somebody is getting over more than somebody else, we’d move that person into the spot and move the other person down.”

He added that he welcomes frustration from talent if it motivates them to improve, arguing that performers who connect with audiences naturally force their way into bigger opportunities.

Triple H’s comments are unlikely to end the debate surrounding the main event scene in WWE. However, with stars like Femi, Breakker, and Hayes continuing to build momentum, the months ahead could determine whether WWE’s next generation can force its way to the company’s biggest storylines, just as HHH believes they should.

Jadon Sancho is still looking for a new club after being released by Manchester United earlier this summer, as Pep Guardiola’s comments about the England winger look more relevant than ever.

Sancho spent two years in the Manchester City youth system after joining from Watford at just 15 years old. Since then, he’s had an impressive spell at Borussia Dortmund before a big-money move to the Red Devils.

His spell at Old Trafford was ultimately a failure, as Sancho spent most of his time out on loan, most recently at Aston Villa. Now, the future is extremely uncertain for the 26-year-old, who was once one of the most exciting players in world football.

Sancho’s Career Hits New Low as He Trains With 10th-Tier Club

Between 2021 and 2026, the Englishman managed just 83 appearances for United, scoring 12 and registering six assists. Per The Sun, Sancho has recently been using non-league Flixton’s 2,000-capacity Valley Road ground to keep fit.

“You’ve got a nice layout here. It’s the first time I’ve seen a nice pitch [in this area] apart from United and City,” he said when discussing the facilities in a club interview.

The currently unemployed forward has promised to be in the stands to watch Flixton’s game next Tuesday as the club prepare for their first competitive season since going bust in 2012.

Pep Guardiola Already Explained Sancho Red Flag

Speaking in 2017, Guardiola explained Sancho’s decision to leave Man City to find more game time at Dortmund. The Catalan-born coach explained a new deal was agreed with the player, who was also set to train with the first team, before Sancho changed his mind.

Guardiola explained: “There are two sides to the decision and if one side doesn’t want it, it doesn’t want. We arrived at an agreement with Sancho, we shake our hands [on a deal], so we offered him a huge deal in terms of the salary. Even after when they say ‘No’, we met the father and the managers, and the other managers, and with him, but if the player says ‘No, no, no, no, no’, what can we do?”

That led the English club to leave him behind when they left for the pre-season tour of America after Sancho failed to show up for training sessions, as Guardiola added: “We shake our hands and after that, before we went to the States, he decided, or the managers decided, ‘I am not going to sign the contract’.

“We said, ‘OK, you are not going to travel to the States because if you are not going to sign the contract, you are going to stay here’, and after that for the last two or three weeks he didn’t appear in the training sessions. He should come but he didn’t. I said, ‘Where are you?’”

Guardiola, one of the Premier League’s greatest-ever managers, has been known to give youth a chance during his reign at the Etihad, and even with Barcelona and Bayern Munich. But ultimately, Sancho didn’t want to hang around to see how things would go at Man City.

Statistics in this article are courtesy of Transfermarkt. Correct as of 02-08-26.