Question Number: 24595

Mechanics 2/18/2011

RE: select Under 14

Rick Grant of Atlanta, GA USA asks...

Can a player put themselves offside? A player on a break away about 25 years away from goal, keeper stays on their line and is only one to beat, attacker mis dribbles and ends up in front of the ball, slows and waits for the ball to get back to them, continues attack and scores. AR raises flag and CR whistles the offside. I believe this to be in error as the ball was not last played by a team mate.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Rick
You are indeed correct and I can't believe this call, assuming it was for offside?. A player in an offside position must receive the ball from a team mate to be called offside, never when he dribbles the ball or plays/misplays the ball to himself or indeed when he intercepts a deliberate play from an opponent, no matter his position.
Is there any possibility that the AR flagged for an offence such as deliberate handball, impeding the GK getting to the ball behind teh forward? I would like to think that there was an offence there because an offside infraction is so far off the mark.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Knee jerk reaction by the AR with no thought involved. Tsk.

Guess they forgot about the training which insists we keep the flag down unless we are certain the player a) is in an offside position (here he is not); receives the ball last touched or played by a teammate (this completely fails); and c) interferes with play or with an opponent or gains an advantage through a deflection or rebound (can't even get here because a & b failed).

But the referee had to be brain dead too. It is always the referee who makes the final determination on whether or not the raised flag merits an offside call based on the information in front of the referee.

Don't we wish we could card referees sometimes? :-)

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Hi Rick. Yup, you got it right and the referee crew blew it here in my home town!! One is only judged offside when a teammate plays or touches the ball. Bad day for the ref crew. I can only imagine what else got called wrong.