Question Number: 29356

Law 11 - Offside 4/25/2015

RE: Youth to adult, comp and rec. Other

Barry Stewart of Chilliwack, BC Canada asks...

This question is a follow up to question 29349

Excellent discussion here.

This situation came up at a recent high school girls' game I was officiating. The attacker was clearly offside¦ but the defender made an intercepting move and doofed on her clearing kick. The ball spun to the (previously) offside player, who scored on the play.

I have shared this thread with the coach, who hadn't heard about the rule change.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Barry
The challenge in these situation is determine if the contact is a rebound or a deflection or a save. All do not reset the offside and it can be debated that an intercepting move is a deflection.
I have pointed to this video a number of times as the author obviously felt the contact was a deflection.
http://garcia-aranda.com/offsideifab/eng004video007.html
When there is a deliberate play of the ball that is miskicked or misdirected then offside is reset and there cannot be offside. In your example there is no offside and play continues.

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

If this is a FIFA game, there is no offside here. Reason being is that the defender attempted to control the ball, but the ball went in a direction she did not attend it to. According to the FIFA guidelines this now resets offside. If you are playing by a different rule book (like they do in American High School Soccer), then you have to check that rule book out.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Barry,
You are correct, we do not reward mistakes with an offside bail out. If you hold the opinion the ball was deliberately played in that the defender had time and space to decide on a course of action but miskicks then there is no offside! If the ball is impacting the player so there is insufficent time or space to react deliberately other than to flinch or flail at the ball and it deflects then offside criteria is NOT reset!
Cheers