Question Number: 24500

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 1/18/2011

Ken Corbelli of Redding, CA USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 24459

It seems to me that in the described situation, the attacker is said to have passed the 2nd-to-last defender before the ball was chipped over the defense.

If so, then he is in violation of offside and has no right to play the ball. As such, I do not see how there can possibly be DOGSO. The narrative did not say the AR flagged the player for offside, but this possibility should be looked at since this is how it was described.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Ken
Offside is not a consideration here, well not in my interpretation of the question.
You are quite correct that if offside is a consideration and the player in an offside position interferes with play or an opponent then it cannot be a free kick to the offence as the offside infraction happened first and denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity does not arise.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

No, it doesn't say the attacker passed the second to last defender BEFORE the ball was chipped. If it had I think we all would have jumped on that tidbit of information. I thought and I think the rest of us also, the only reason the question includes the information is to show it's a one on one with the keeper thus setting up a possible DOGSO situation.

But if the attacker was in an offside position when the ball was chipped he would be guilty of interfering with an opponent and called for an offside offense