Question Number: 30380

Law 11 - Offside 5/3/2016

RE: Amateur Adult

George of Parangarecutirimicuaro, CA Sacratomato asks...

Team A is on the attack and has two players who are clearly offside. Team B defenders are retreating but in line waiting to intercept a pass and trying not to cover the offside players. When the ball is passed, one defender raises his foot as the ball is going past him and he lands an obvious kick on the ball, but he kicks the ball directly to the player in offside position. To me it looked like a pass from defender to player in offside position so no foul. We discussed the play at halftime. My colleagues insisted since defender had no intention of passing the ball to players in offside position, then we had to interpret the pass as a deflection hence offside should have been called. I would like to hear the panel's take on this particular play.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi George
The panel has had numerous discussion about this topic and what constitutes a deliberate play versus a deflection. Some associations including my own has come up with some advice for senior referees on the subject.
UEFA tells us in its advice on a deliberate play that if
# The player s moving towards the ball
# The ball is expected
# It is a deliberate act
# There is enough time to play the ball
# The player is balanced and ready
# The ball is properly played (the quality of the play does not matter) then that is considered a reset.
In your situation the notion of intention is not relevant. No player ever has the intention of playing the ball to an opponent. We must just look at the action of the player. Some will be certain deliberate plays while others will be questionable and we are left with in the opinion of the referee based on the circumstances.
In this video it is a clear reset with the ball played by Yellow which goes to a White PIOP
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=IYaajd5Yf0Q
Now here is a much more questionable one in the me game
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=xgoRylxkXdw&t=1747
Some see it as a deflection while others see it as a deliberate action by the defender that is poorly executed. The AR gave it as offside and that is all that matters.
Here are some others. One is given as offside and it does not look like a deflection to me.
http://garcia-aranda.com/offsideifab/esp004video008.html
https://vimeo.com/105993087
https://vimeo.com/105997090

Answer provided by Referee James Sowa

George,

This is a tricky one. First, you can tell your colleagues that they are wrong on their interpretation. The intended target of the pass is irrelevant. The law states that the defender makes a deliberate play on the ball. There is no mention of intent to play to a teammate. That said, what constitutes deliberate?

Referee McHugh lists some excellent points up above. I will summarize my view and what I have heard from a couple professional AR's.

Does the defender have the ability (and would be expected) to reasonably make a controlled play on the ball? If the answer is yes, then the act was deliberate. This will of course vary with skill level and experience/level of competition should be considered. This is also an excellent topic to discuss in your pregame as to expectations for handling this situation in a game.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 30439