Question Number: 29541

Law 11 - Offside 7/19/2015

RE: All Professional

Scott of Danville, CA USA asks...

I have a question regarding the ever confusing law 11 - offside. In particular the wording regarding the timing 'at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team".

I was taught and understand the condition "at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team" applies to the judgment of the positioning. The way the rule actually reads it appears this condition applies to involvement in active play. Therefore a literal interpretation would not be offside in this case:

Player is in an offside position, at the moment ¦ but far away from any opponent (not interfering with play or opponent)
5 seconds later starts running after the ball and then touches it.

Seems like the rule would be clearer if that condition was moved to the "Offside position" section.

Am I interpreting this correctly?

Quoted from current rulebook

Offside position
It is not an offence in itself to be in an offside position.
A player is in an offside position if:
¢ he is nearer to his opponents goal line than both the ball and the
second-last opponent

A player is not in an offside position if:
¢ he is in his own half of the field of play or
¢ he is level with the second-last opponent or
¢ he is level with the last two opponents

Offence
A player in an offside position is only penalised if, at the moment the ball
touches or is played by one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee,
involved in active play by:
¢ interfering with play or
¢ interfering with an opponent or
¢ gaining an advantage by being i

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Scott
The Laws of the Game requires a degree of tacit knowledge. In your example it is certainly offside and yes a literal interpretation of the actual wording could reach an opinion albeit incorrect that the final condition of offside has to met at the moment the ball is played by a team mate. We know that not to be the case. Law 11 is written with two parts. Part one is the offside position and we are informed that it is not an offence to be in an offside position. The 2nd part is the active play part the interpretation of which has been amended most recently in 2013
I would also make the point that the interpretation of Law 11 has been the most amended with multiple reiterations over many years. IFAB has also had to spell out the interpretation with wordings such as this Law 11 Decision from the sixties / seventies
** Off-side shall not be judged at the moment the player in question receives the ball, but at the moment when the ball is passed to him by one of his own side. A player who is not in an off-side position when one of his colleagues passes the ball to him or takes a free-kick, does not therefore become off-side if he goes forward during the flight of the ball.**
In the great rewrite of 1997 Law 11 was written as we have it today. The only change has been in the interpretation.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Scott,
I completely agree with your observation. If you read the laws completely literally, then it's almost impossible for an attacker to be touching the ball 'at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team'. I consider it an amusing quirk in the way the laws are written.
When issues like this arise, we consider common sense, or our understanding or what the law is trying to achieve. As you stated, 'the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team' is taught to only be relevant for judging positioning. Despite the wording, involvement in active play only comes later. So stick to what you've been taught to do and what you know the Law is trying to achieve - judge offside position at the moment the ball is touched by one of his team, then if in an offside position see if he becomes involved in active play by interfering with play, interfering with an opponent, or gaining an advantage by being in an offside position.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

I have always thought this was one of the most poorly written section of the Laws. I'm not sure why they have managed to come up with loads of interpretations on offside, but never corrected the text to say what it really means.

Another one is in Law 10: 'A goal is scored when the whole of the ball passes over the goal line, between the goalposts and under the crossbar, provided that no infringement of the Laws of the Game has been committed previously by the team scoring the goal.' Taken literally this means that once each team has committed a foul, no further scoring can take place. Might as well say game over!

I think part of the reason why these obvious things do not get corrected is the method of how the Laws get updated. FIFA or one of the 4 British FA's must make an application to IFAB for a change. Since a change would only clarify the language to make it say what it really means there is no incentive for a FA to begin the process of proposing a change. They already know what it is supposed to mean, so why bother to go through the process?