Much like a penalty kick for corner kick, a dropped ball is one of many methods of getting play restarted during a game of soccer. The different ball and different kick is that a dropped ball is not given to one of the teams. Anytime that the referee must stop play for any reason that is not the result of the ball leaving the bounds of the game or a file having occurred, a job always used to get the ball back into play. This is just one form of restarting play the game of soccer.

During a dropped ball, the ball is actually dropped by the referee in the last spot in which it was in play, unless this is an area close to the goal in parallel to the actual gold neck and line. Once the ball touches the ground, the ball is fair game and is considered to be in play for players must not touch it until it has actually reached the ground. If the ball crosses the bounds and leaves the field before it has been touched, then the ball goes through another drop off. In most cases, the drop-off occurs between two players, one player from each side of the game.