Question Number: 25759

Law 5 - The Referee 11/20/2011

RE: Rec, ODSL, WAGS Adult

Todd Dodge of Front Royal, Virginia USA asks...

At a U12 tournament a Red attacking player was fouled, I waited to make the call to see if there was 'advantage'. The ball did go to another Red attacker, who I thought might be Offside, but the AR did not make any signal, so I yelled 'Play on'. The Red player who recieved the ball, took a couple of touches, shot and scored. WHILE this was happening the AR raised their flag for Offside. After consulting with the AR, the Red player who recieved the ball was in an offside position when they recieved the ball but the AR was distracted because of the original foul and was delayed in putting up the flag. I disallowed the goal and went back to the original foul against the Red attacker and restarted with a Direct kick for the Red team. Before the restart I went to both coaches and told them what had happened and what my decision was. Was this the correct decision?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Correct decision. It sounds like maybe your AR let things go on a little too long, and you had to rewind time to sort it out. There was no advantage to be had, because the player was offside. So you go back to the original foul and a free kick. Hopefully the coaches accepted the explanation well - that doesn't always happen.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Well done. Not only did you make the correct call, but you found a way that everyone understood what happened. With older players, the discussion would be appropriate with the captains; at this age level, a quick word with both coaches shows both confidence and professionalism.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Todd
Yes you made the correct decision. As there was no possible advantage then the referee must go back to the original offence which was the foul against the red attacker.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Todd,

You made the correct decision here. You mentioned the key factor here - that the ball only went to the offside player because of the foul.

If the red player had passed the ball to the offside player (and wasn't under immediate pressure to do so), then the correct decision would be the offside.

I once had the same situation as you - nobody really understood it, including other referees at the field, but it was definitely the correct decision. Well done.