Question Number: 29003

Law 11 - Offside 11/24/2014

RE: 6 Adult

steve darlow of manchester, england asks...

a defender turns to play the ball to his keeper it goes to an attacker stood in an offside postion.
what is the correct decision offside or not offside

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Steve
Why would it be offside? The ball has been deliberately kicked by an opponent to his goalkeeper and as offside requires the ball to be last touched /played by a team mate of the player in an offside position for offside to be considered then the only possible outcome is no offside.
If the ball deflected / rebounded off a defender from an attackers touch / play to his team mate in an offside position then offside would still apply.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Steve,
If the ball is deliberately played by a defender then his opponents are no longer bound by any previous offside criteria as this new deliberate touch of the ball resets all opposition offside. It is NOT an offence to be offside positioned and it is not a crime for an offside attacker to benefit from a deliberate reset by a mistake, poor skill or a bad decision from a defender.

The exceptions to this situation requires the ball rebound or deflects off the defender or the defender makes a deliberate save and plays the ball to a PREVIOUS offside restricted opponent.

This is just a mistake and NOT OFFSIDE!
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee James Sowa

Since the ball was last deliberately played by the defender, there can be no offside. This is unfortunate for the goalkeeper who now has to stop the break-away. If the ball had deflected from an attacker off of the defender, then we would consider offside.