Question Number: 30156

Law 11 - Offside 2/29/2016

RE: Adult

demetris of LIMASSOL, CYPRUS asks...

hello,suppose i am defender and a cross is made by an opponent and i am trying to play the ball in order to prevent it from reaching onother opponent (who is in offside position but i dont know that) but i cant kick the ball that good and the ball finally arrives to the opponent and he scores.OFFSIDE or NOT? .Please can you commend on two incidence (AEK's second and sixth goal) of the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1smf8aXepbw#t=53.957366943359375 (AEK vs APOLLON 6-1 cyprus league feb28/2016) thanks /demetris

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Demetris,

The new interpretation for offside points out if you (in the opinion of the referee) deliberately play a ball then you are the team who last touched/played that ball and it RESETS offside to where the opponents, no matter their position on the field or previous status can play that ball fairly.

If the referee held the opinion the ball DEFLECTED or REBOUNDED off of you OR you had a made a DELIBERATE SAVE only then the PIOP is held accountable for gaining an advantage and declared offside!

Where it gets fuzzy is if the referee thinks you deliberately played the ball but did it poorly or you redirected the ball deliberately to an unsafe area of the field as a mistake ! So it could be interpreted as a deflection thus offside is alive or a deliberate action gone wrong and offside ceases to exist for the opposition. As that is an OPINION on a fact of play his match, his decision, his reputation 1

2nd goal defender deliberately tried to play the ball but failed to control it thus it reset offside
6th goal for me no goal offside but my opinion does not matter
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The interpretation is tending more and more toward any deliberate play of the ball by a defender, good bad or otherwise, will reset offside. Only deflections will not, and that's being more narrowly defined as the ball bouncing off the defender when the defender didn't know it was coming.

It used to be more of an interpretation that 'played and controlled' reset offside. Perhaps more in some countries than in others, but that is going away.

In the meantime, it's kind of confusing not knowing what the interpretation will be week by week and ref by ref.