Question Number: 27278

Law 11 - Offside 3/28/2013

RE: Intermediate Under 12

Phil of Tarzana, CA United States asks...

This question is a follow up to question 27277

I have a follow up question to something Jason Wright said. In the situation where an injured player drags himself over the goal or touch line, suppose a defender then controls the ball (starting a new phase for offside purposes). If an attacker then regains control of the ball, do you still consider the person who is off the field for offside purposes? i.e. if the attacker who has the ball then passes to someone who would be offside (but for the defender off the field), do you still count him on the field?

Thanks in advance,

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Phil
As the player is off the field of play without permission it makes no difference even if there is another phase of play. He is still considered to be on the FOP for offside purposes. I'm of the view that unless the referee stops play to deal with the injury the player cannot be discounted. To do so would encourage players to lay down 'injured' in offside scenarios and that must not be encouraged.
The referee though can be lenient on the issue of the caution if he feels it was a 'genuine' injury.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Phil,

For my area that was the instruction at the time, and it came down to one of those 'letter vs spirit of the law' issues.

The only reason I went down the path I did at that time was because even the attacking team had forgotten about that defender, and he had already started to receive attention so it was clear he wasn't coming back on - and play had moved right up the other end of the field.

It's certainly not a clear cut scenario - and in all my years of refereeing I've only interpreted the law this way once.

It's always going to be a tricky scenario because the players most likely won't understand the laws here no matter what you do. 99% of the time the safest bet will be to do what Ref McHugh says. In fact, as an assessor I could not fault a referee who did just that - but I could fault a referee who applied a looser interpretation of the law (as I did) and it became a problem.

I don't believe I acted outside of the laws, but I applied a somewhat looser interpretation than normal - and as I said, my local area had previously held a discussion over this sort of situation.

I should also add that at the next stoppage I caught the attention of the referee so he's aware of the player off the field.