Question Number: 30532

Law 11 - Offside 6/23/2016

RE: Rec Adult

Nick of Peterborough, Ontario Canada asks...

While I was reffing an old timers game I came across a situation where the defending player who was under pressure in his own end plays the ball back (likely to his keeper) however he kicks it into a crowd of three players (mix of attacking/defending players) it deflects off of them and continues toward his own goal, but it goes straight to an attacking player who was in an offside position. There was a lot of confusion but I allowed play to continue because the ball was originally played by the defender and not an attacker. Thankfully, there was no scoring opportunity on that play as the attacking player could not get to the ball.
What would be the correct decision?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

No offside would be a correct decision, unless you knew that another attacking player touched the ball before it went to the offside positioned player. A touch by a teammate doesn't need to be a deliberate play to cause offside. Any touch will do. Even a deflection off a teammate would cause offside.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Nick,
Law 11 only refers to when the ball is last touched or played by a teammate. Emphasis on 'touch' - so every single touch by an attacker, deflection or otherwise, 'resets' offside. That is, everytime there is a touch, you need to think about offside position (and what happened before, doesn't matter). If you're unclear if it came off the attacker here then you'll have to apply benefit of the doubt to assume there was no attacking touch, and go back to the one before.

So the most important thing is - when it came into the mix of 3 players, did an attacker get a touch to it or not? If not (or unsure), no offside. If so, the fact that a defender sent it into there is irrelevant.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Nick
Well first off we can discount the deliberate kick to the goalkeeper. The fact that the ball was misdirected into a crowd of three players and it is deflected negates the deliberate kick. So had it made it directly to the GK he may be entitled to pick the ball up.
Now as to offside here the decision rests on who touched the ball last. If the ball last touched an attacker before going to the PIOP then we call offside. The intention or quality of the touch is irrelevant.
Now if the onside attacker played the ball and it deflected off a defender we also call offside as the deflection does not reset the offside.
In your scenario lets say that the kick by the defender was deflected by another defender then it is play on as there cannot be offside. If there is a touch / play in there by an attacker then offside. If the referee does not know who last played the ball then play continues.