Question Number: 23365

Law 5 - The Referee 5/24/2010

RE: Rec Under 19

Alan of Los Angeles County, California USA asks...

A situation came up recently that I would like your advice on how to handle in the future.

Attacker 1 was clearly in an offside position when the ball was kicked by his teammate. The lead AR raised his flag to signal offside. I saw the flag but did not whistle since I did not think that attacker 1 was involved in active play. Attacker 1 saw the flag and realized that he was in an offside position and did not interfere with play nor interfere with an opponent.

Since there were other attackers who were coming from an onside position converging on the ball, I waived the flag down (silently).

The other attackers were able to play the ball and did. However, the defenders who had also seen the flag go up assumed that the play was dead and did not give chase to the attackers.

The defenders were upset that the (perceived) offside infraction was not whistled.

Is this simply a case of 'sorry fellows, play to the whistle' or did the referees unfairly influence the events? Should I have said something on the field to announce that it was not offside instead of just waiving down the too early flag?

Thanks for the great service you provide to the soccer community!

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

The best thing in such circumstances is to make sure you visually and verbally wave the flag down, so all players are aware there is no offside to be called. Then give a thumbs up to the AR, because it was information he needed for you to have (or at least we want to give that appearance in some cases). But, the defenders should play the whistle.

It is okay to shout out 'No offside! Play the whistle!' if you feel or see defenders beginning to react to the flag. Technically, they shouldn't, and we shouldn't compensate for their mistakes, of course, but there is preventative refereeing as well, which takes into consideration the age, skill level and experience of the players.

Hopefully, the referee will always include such scenarios in his or her pregame, so the AR knows what to do if such a situation occurs, and that being waved down doesn't mean the referee isn't listening. It also gives the referee the opportunity to reinforce the requirement to wait, wait, wait until the AR is POSITIVE there has been involvement before raising the flag. Any doubt? Keep it down!!!

Good luck out there!

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

These are U19 players and should know to play the whistle. Hopefully the AR put his flag down immediately upon being waved off and you went over that in your pregame. At younger levels of play I always remind the players in pregame to please play the whistle and not the flag.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

When the referee is 100 percent sure the flag is wrong, the referee's duty is to wave down the flag and let play continue. Players have known since age 6 to play the whistle.