Question Number: 30700

Law 11 - Offside 8/30/2016

RE: rec Under 17

Ann Catuoso of Bablyon, NY USA asks...

Player 'A' is in offside position. Player 'B' is digging the ball and passes right by player 'A' without giving Player 'A' the ball should the call be offsides because player 'A' came into the play? If so define 'come into play'

Player 'A' is in offside position. Player 'B' is digging the ball and passes right by player 'A' without giving Player 'A' the ball. The defender or goalie starts to play Player 'A' because they think he is going to get the ball. Player 'b' takes the shot and scorces. Should the call be offsides because the defender/goalie put player 'A' into the play? If so define 'come into play'

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Ann
Not sure where the term 'come into play' comes from? The offside term is interfering with an opponent which is defined as
# preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent's line of vision or
# challenging an opponent for the ball or
# clearly attempting to play a ball which is close to him when this action impacts on an opponent or
# making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball.
Simply being in an offside position, close to the ball is not enough to be called offside. The player has to something more.
So unless Player A does one of the four actions listed above there is no offside. A goalkeeper or defender making a poor choice of movement based on the proximity of a player in an offside position is not enough on its own to call offside.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Ann,

You seem to be getting diverted by a term or concept that, as Ref McHugh states, is not part of the offside law. As per the Laws definitions which he fully quotes, it would not appear that an offside offence has occurred in either of the examples that you give.