Question Number: 30696

Law 11 - Offside 8/29/2016

RE: Competitive Adult

Chuck of Phoenix, Az Us asks...

I am dribbling through the middle of the field, unopposed. I look downfield and see our forward alone approximately 30 yards from goal. I continue dribbling until a defender approaches me. Just before the defender reaches me, I make the pass to my forward. He is in an offside position, but at least 5 yards from the ball. He gets to about a yard away from the ball and I yell 'don't touch it'. He stops and does not touch it. I have continued my run and get to the ball. Since the defense had stopped on my pass to the forward, they assumed offside. I take the ball down to the goal unopposed by any defenders and score. Should offside have been called in this scenario?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Chuck
As described this was not offside under current Law 11 as the player in an offside position did not interfere with play by touching the ball or did not interfere with an opponent by challenging for the ball. If the PIOP was positioned in a way that prevented the defender from getting to the ball then it would be offside.
Might it be called without that? The answer to that is yes because at times some match officials may not be up to speed on the changes to Law 11 or they are eager to flag rather than waiting to see what develops. Under previous iterations of the Law going back a number of years the PIOP could be deemed as being involved in active play by moving close to the ball. Some officials have not moved on or rush to put up the offside flag assuming that the contact will happen.
Here are two examples of no offside that were flagged incorrectly as offside.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b7Yo8966WLc
https://vimeo.com/106949702

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Chuck,

Generally speaking the player shouldn't be penalised for offside until they touch the ball or interfere with an opponent (such as being in an opponent's way, even if the attacker in the offside position is standing still).

Referees are permitted to penalise the offside if there is an attacking player going for the ball and there is no chance of the ball going out first, no chance of an onside attacker reaching the ball, or no chance of the defender reaching the ball uncontested. This is to prevent the frustrating and pointless scenario where the attacker chases the ball for 30 yards to touch it in the corner when he was clearly offside from the start.

You often see an early flag if there's going to be a close contest with an attacker and a keeper from a through ball - this is permitted because the keeper is affected by the impending challenge, and because we want to stop the challenge. So rather than wait for the challenge, we can flag early.

So in your case, the referee might be permitted to penalise it early if it looks like there is no chance of anybody else (including yourself) reaching the ball. If it looks like you might be running onto the ball yourself, the referee should 'wait and see'. Once you've issued the instruction and it's then clear that player isn't going to get involved, it's too late for the early flag so the referee would need to wait to see if he is otherwise involved (if, say, a defender was forced to run around your teammate to challenge you for the ball and this affected the challenge, it's still an infringement for interfering with an opponent).