Question Number: 29119

Law 11 - Offside 1/20/2015

RE: Intermediate Under 13

Phil of Tarzana, CA United States asks...

This question is a follow up to question 29113

Thanks for your explanation & to referee Dawson for pointing out the offside examples in the current rule book. I'd like to make sure I have this right. In AYSO, we were told that if
1. an offside player is running for the ball,
2. no other onside attacker could get the ball,
3. and the offside player had a chance of getting to the ball,
we were not to wait, but to call offside. I suppose this was to not waste time (or force the CR to run unnecessarily). Apparently, this advice is not correct.

Referee Dawson said: 'For the record a SINGLE offside positioned player may be penalized before playing or touching the ball, if, in the opinion of the referee, no other team-mate in an onside position has ANY opportunity to play the ball and the ball is not possibly going to go out of play before it could be played.'

I had two offside situations in which I was told I was wrong in the first one & correct in the second one. I now think that may be just the opposite.

1. Red attackers kick a long ball toward Blue goal. GK comes out to the edge of the penalty area as sole offside Red player runs for the ball. I waited until the Red player was about 3 yards from GK before waiving flag (ball was still in the air, but almost where GK & Red were.) I felt Red player was challenging for the ball. CR told me to call it much sooner.

2. Red attacker kicks a long ball diagonally toward opponents sideline (my side). Offside Blue player runs & is gaining on the ball (no other players around). The Red player got to about 2 yards from the ball & the ball was about 2 yards from the touch line. I raised the flag, as I felt Red was challenging for the ball. I was UNsure whether Red would get to the ball before it went out of bounds.

Based on what was said in your responses, I now think I was correct in the first example. I needed to wait until Red actually interfered with an opponent by challenging for the ball. I also think I was wrong in the seocnd example. I should have waited to see if Red actually touched the ball or whether it went out first.

Do I have this right?

Thanks again,

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

1. In youth and recreational matches, the assistant referee should not risk a collision between a player in offside position (PIOP) and a goalkeeper. In my pregame, I always include this exact scenario as the only situation in which I want a quick and early flag. But, IMO, the quick flag is for interfering with an opponent (interfering with the keeper's line of sight or ability to play the ball) - which does not require touching the ball.

2. When you are not sure if the PIOP will be able to play the ball before it leaves the field of play, keep the flag down. See Illustration #5 to FIFA Interpretations and Guidelines (attached as an appendix). It is only in the rare instance when the AR is 100% sure than only the PIOP will touch the ball and no one else will (see Illustration #4) than the flag should go up. (Note: my experience is that AR's often fail to see the player in the onside position who is rushing forward to play the ball and err by raising the flag. So, wait and see remains the best advice, IMO.)

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Phil,
the AYSO advice is correct, in situations where the ball is not going to be going into touch but it does not necessarily contain all the information in every situation when it is obvious the ball will or likely could be going into touch before the player could get to it.

Look through the offside diagrams in the interpretive part of the LOTG

#4 A player in an offside position (A) may be penalised before playing or touching the ball, if, in the opinion of the referee, no other team-mate in an onside position has the opportunity to play the ball.

#5 An attacker in an offside position (1) runs towards the ball and does not touch the ball. The assistant referee must signal "goal kick

The #4 is an exact match of AYSO advice but the picture shows the offside player WILL get to the ball

The #5 is a picture of an offside player CHASING a ball that is going to go over the goal line, out of play BEFORE he could get there.
I tried to comprise the, When in doubt do not wave it about! philosophy of holding the decision until you are 100% sure of the result into a single statement.

In your first instance, your thinking is correct
An attacker in an offside position running towards the ball does not necessarily prevent the opponent from playing or being able to play the ball. Until it is obvious there is a challenge. It is apparent that IFAB and FIFA are not compensating for reduced pressure. The changed the game when they introduced the phrase ' challenging an opponent for the ball' When a challenge is considered as active involvement being about two paces away at the speed of play!

Two opposing players running at top speed in opposing directions towards each other. One is the keeper the other an offside player is the ..only.. other participant in pursuit. Is there likely to be or a possibility of a collision? When do you think it would be time to flag, given the ball in flight is not there yet to be played? Just to be clear top speed running two paces covers 6 meters so 12 meters of distance in a head to head race to the same point of reference, safety, avoid the collision! The distance could drastically shrink if say one of the two is stopped waiting for the ball's arrival as well as the determination of who is getting there first. But also considering, you MAY choose as you are PERMITTED in LAW to award offside, if, in the opinion of the referee, no other team-mate in an onside position has the opportunity to play the ball.

By all means raise the flag to stop things from getting to that point of no return. You do not have to wait for playing distance between the keeper and offside player to narrow down to a border line ability to be able to stop. YOU can apply advantage in that the keeper with the ball in the hand might be better than a pressured clearance. . If your CR is asking for a quicker flag, it is likely a safety concern to avoid a collision

If there WAS an onside player in the pursuit, although we are instructed to WAIT for a touch to see it as ..interfering with play.. Keep an open mind to the possibility if the offside player is indeed challenging the keeper before the onside player has played the ball , the offside player has ..interfered with the opponent.. it is flag raising time.


In your second instance again nothing in strictest sense of wrong doing as you may use your opinion as the determining factor but if there was a possibility of two separate endings then yes delay the flag.

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Phil
On the first one the concern is a collision between the two players. It makes no sense to wait until both have collided knowing full well that the offside will be called. Also if there is a serious foul play it will not look good for a defending player to be sent off when the restart had to be an IDFK for offside nor will a defending player thank an AR for a late flag when the challenge on him by a PIOP could have been avoided. So there is a judgement call based on the likely outcome. I have waited on these expecting the ball to make it back safely and when I'm unsure the flag goes up.
On the second one it is definitely a wait and see flag. If it goes out of play its a throw in. If it is played the the flag goes up and the IDFK is awarded. Again where it gets tricky is the danger of contact in a challenge if there is an opponent involved.
If there is possible contact then a timely flag sorts it. That comes with experience when one is better able to predict the likely outcome.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Phil,

Your understanding is correct. The reason we can flag early is to prevent the situation where the AR needs to run alongside an attacker for 30 yards before sticking the flag up when everybody knows what's going to happen anyway - which is what did happen a few years ago. As for the situations you provided:

1) In a situation where the attacker in the offside position may not touch the ball before the defence but will at least be close enough to put immediate pressure on the defender, you can still flag that early - because they'll be interfering with the opponent instead.

That's the justification under the law. As to why you'd want to flag early - when an attacker in an offside position and a keeper are running for the ball and it looks like there's a chance of a collision, just flag it. The attacker can't get the ball anyway - but what you're concerned about is the collision. On one hand it could cause a possible injury - but even if it doesn't, these clashes often cause problems for later in the match - they cause aggression between the keeper and the striker, and one of them will try to land a cheap shot later in the match. So the early flag is about preventing problems before they arise.

While you want to lean more towards a quick flag in a youth match, you'll also want to take into consideration what's happened before in the game - eg if there's been tension between the attacker and keeper before, there's a good chance at least one will use the collision as a cheap shot. So stop the game before a collision is a chance.

I'd only allow play to continue if the keeper will clearly get it first well before the attacker - even if he'll get it first 'just' before the attacker, I'd rather stop play.

On the second one, if it might go out, wait and see what happens. challenging the ball isn't something an attacker can be penalised for - it's challenging an opponent for the ball that's the key phrase. So in this case because you're not sure if the attacker in the offside position will touch the ball, and there's no other pressing reason (eg preventing a collision), you'll want to wait and see.