Question Number: 29016

Law 11 - Offside 11/29/2014

RE: Occational Linesman Adult

Terry King of Bristol, England asks...

A player is in an offside position when the ball is played forward by another team player.
Should the linesman flag immediately or wait until the player has committed the offence. I.e. playing the ball, Interfering with play etc.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Terry,

offside is a two part offence! First we (I am referring to the AR) establish the position, if the position remains unchanged THEN we look for the ACTUAL involvement!
We look, we evaluate, we raise the flag ONLY when we as the AR are sure the referee should whistle play dead.

The flag is OUR AR 100% signal to the referee, based on our knowledge of the circumstances we have concluded that offside should be called.

The referee could be aware of other criteria and wave us off if he disagrees. Given the newer versions of what constitutes offside criteria of late I see this happening more often!
Players should NEVER stop play because of a raised flag. Always play the whistle! The flag is only a message for the referee!

There is precedent for an AR to raise an earlier flag if an offside player is in pursuit of a ball and no other teammate is with him, chasing the ball, which has no chance of exiting the FOP before he could get to it or a safety valve tp prevent a collision with an opponent.
In most cases we WAIT and see for a clear touch to be guilty of interfering with play because something could occur that changes the possible outcome.

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Terry
The advice is to keep the flag down until the player in an offside position interferes with play by touching the ball or interferes with an opponent by challenging an opponent. The reason is that there can be a change to the circumstances such as a player changing his mind on his run, an onside player coming through to play the ball etc.
There is however an out clause in the advice in that the AR can flag before the player in an offside meets the offside condition when there is a threat of contact between the offside positioned player running for the ball and an opponent or where there is no possibility of any player other than the lone offside positioned player playing the ball.
Unfortunately that exemption has been overused including at the highest level. I have seen through balls go out for a goal kick or throw in, and offside being flagged and taken. Those are not offside as per the advice.