Question Number: 30605

Law 11 - Offside 7/14/2016

RE: Any Other

former youth ref of Hordaland, Norway asks...

A player (A1) from team A takes a shot while A2 is in an offside position. The shot is deflected by B1 while B2 is in an offside position. The deflection sends the ball to the other (mostly deserted) side of the field. The closest players are A2 and B2, who reach the ball simultaneously.
Dropped ball, or does one of the offside offences have priority?

If a dropped ball, are there other cases of simultaneous events where this would be your restart?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
What you describe is highly unlikely yet could happen around half way if the very unique conditions were such that all players were bunched. Only players on Team A can be in an offside position in Bs half and vice versa. As the ball has been deflected by B1 that does not reset offside so A2 will be called offside the moment he interferes with the play by playing the ball or interferes with an opponent in this case B2.
If B2 plays the ball or interferes with an opponent first then he will be called offside in similar conditions.
For all that to happen A2 would have to move back into his own half during the movement of the ball off the deflection. So while it might happen on paper not likely if ever to happen in reality.
The Law on simultaneous offence has been changed in that the more serious offence is now punished. With two identical offences at the same time a dropped ball is probably the only fair likely restart.
As Referee Grove points out offences are rarely simultaneous so the referee should make a decision to punish the first offence. Perhaps in this offside one the player that touches the ball first or the one in an offside position would be the one to call, certainly the one that is most expected as A2 will be back in his own half and while still offside will not look so. The offside by B2 is more tactical in the opponents half so that is considered to have more tactical impact.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Wow, you really like to find highly unlikely scenarios to propose, don't you? I find it hard to see a realistic possibility of this actually happening, given the required parameters - yet if it did occur exactly as you describe then as Ref McHugh correctly states, the correct decision in law would be a dropped ball for simultaneous offences of the same severity committed at the same time.

As to your second question yes, there could be other cases of simultaneous offences where a dropped ball could be awarded however it is important to note that according to the new (2016/17) edition of the Laws, they must be of the same nature. Whereas previously, any simultaneous offences by opponents resulted in a dropped ball, the law now states that whether the players were on the same or opposing teams, the referee: 'punishes the more serious offence, in terms of sanction, restart, physical severity and tactical impact, when more than one offence occurs
at the same time.'

As the IFAB goes on to explain: 'It should not matter if it is one or several players or from which team(s) as the most serious offence should be penalised.'

Finally though, I would note that in my experience it is very, very rare for offences to be truly simultaneous and it is almost always the case that one offence occurs at least fractionally before the other, so that is the one that should decide the restart.