Question Number: 14907

Law 11 - Offside 2/26/2007

RE: competitive High School

Dan Wybo of London o, Onatrio Canada asks...

OFFSIDE
I'm interested in your comments on
NEARER THAN

Recently I saw an animation on the FIFA site about offside.

It broke down the offside into various components.

However the most interesting point was.

A player is in an offside position if:

he is nearer to his opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent.

What does nearer mean?

Nearer to the opponents' goal line means that

any part of the head, body or feet is nearer to the opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent.

Therefore if the attacking players head, body or feet are nearer to the opponents goal line at the time the ball is played to him, that player is offside.

My question to you is I don't think many Assistant referees understand what nearer than means.

Nearer than is one element of the process, but a very important element.

Nearer than establishes that the player is onside or offside.

Once it has been established that a player is in an offside position, the second condition is evaluated in order to decide whether the player is involved in active play by

- Interfering with play; or

- Interfering with an opponent; or

- gaining an advantage by being in that position.

A player in an offside position is only penalized if, at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee, involved in active play by:

Interfering with active play = playing or touching the ball when it has been passed or touched by a team-mate.

interfering with an opponent =- preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by obstructing the opponent' line of vision or movements,

- or by making a gesture or movement which, in the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts an opponent.

gaining an advantage by being in that position.= - playing a ball that rebounds off a post or the crossbar after having been in an offside position, or

- playing a ball that rebounds off an opponent after having been in an offside position.

I'm interested in your comments on NEARER THAN

http://www.fifa.com/en/regulations/regulation/0,1584,3,00.html

CLICK HERE FOR INTERACTIVE GUIDE TO OFFSIDE LAW

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

I wrote a little explanation of offside before the things you ask about appeared in Law 11. The paper didn't need changing. If the assistants, you speak of, would read the paper it would save their referees a lot of grief.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

"Nearer than" is very easy to see in freeze-frame replay. It's much harder in real time. The AR also has to be aware of when the ball is last touched.

It used to be that the benefit of doubt was given to the defending team. Over the last decade or so, the trend has turned to "When in doubt, don't call it." FIFA emphasized wanting attacking play and goalscoring.

I wondered just why FIFA/IFAB wanted to make my job harder by the new "nearer than" interpretation. When I was looking across the field and saw a sliver of green uniform poking past the white uniform, I could see green was in an offside position. Now I have to see where their feet and heads are too? Sorry, that is a very fine line for me. Only if I can clearly see a player in an offside position can I make a call.

Incidentally, other than the new "nearer than" construct, everything IFAB has come up with in the last few rounds of Law 11 tinkering has already been in place in the USSF. We were told that if we had been following USSF directives, we already were doing it right. Hopefully the same applies to you guys up north. (Or east, of me, as the case may be.) At least you get to call HS games using FIFA Laws.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

I would hope you're wrong about the AR's. How can anyone step onto a soccer field as an AR and NOT know what constitute's offside position

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Part of the problem with opinions is different perspectives offer different solutions. Fifa realized that the way people interpret the offside criteria was too broad a spectrum so they try to fashion some specific points to abide by that all are supposed to be able to follow.

Not that it is important but I was always taught that when in doubt do not wave it about and I follow that thinking even today, unless I am 100% POSITIVE the offside position is there only then I call it.
The torso or main centre of body mass was an accepted line up off the dividing line of on side versus offside. . The point made by others at high speed with players moving at 20 miles an hour in opposite directions we are not as likely to see a small body part as a large flash of jersey colour! Of course from a static position looking across the field I can see if the back foot of a defender is a bit closer to that goal line than the leaning head of an attacker.
I also know that the AR must understand when there are situations of clarity not to be confused simply by position.
A good example a defender and an attacker through momentume go off the field in behind the goalline. The ball rebounds out to an attacker who shoots at goal with the two players (defender and attacker)still outside the field the keeper bobbles the ball and it falls off to the side where the returning attacker first back on to the field potts a goal!
Or is it?
The cry goes up he is offside he was behind the keeper when the shot was taken! The keeper was the second last defender as the last defender would be the one still outside the field of play. The centre goes over to the AR and confers then says we have kick off !
The two points required to understand this was a good goal are
1) the players who leave the FOP in behind the goal line are for all practical puposes considered to be on the goal line for puposes of evaluating offside
2) while the keeper was not off the field of play he was STANDING with the back foot on his goal line when the shot (last touch)occurred thus he too was on the goal line! Cannot be any nearer to it than that!
law 11 A player is in an offside position if:
he is nearer to his opponents? goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent.
A player is not in an offside position if
he is level with the second last opponent or
he is level with the last two opponents.

1. A player accidentally passes over one of the boundary lines of the
fi eld of play. Is he considered to have left the field of play without the permission of the referee?
No.

Cheers

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 14948