Question Number: 30830

Law 11 - Offside 9/27/2016

RE: Adult

Steven Morris of Santa Barbara, Ca USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 24921

What if player A is offside when player B makes a long diagonal pass toward him, but a defender, player C, intercepts the pass with his head. Player A coming back upfield then takes the ball away from the defender before he can head upfield toward player A's half.

Should player A still be flagged for being in an offside position when player B made the initial pass -- resulting in a free kick for the defending team?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Steven
If Player C heads the ball away with no challenge from Player A then there is no offside offence. That deliberate header resets offside. There is no offence of being in an offside position and the offside player has to do something more such as touch the ball, challenge an opponent for the ball or interfere with line of sight of an opponent playing the ball.
Now you say that Player C heads the ball a second time and then is challenged by Player A. In my opinion this must all happen quite close together so the referee could deem this as a challenge by Player A on the first header and therefore offside for interfering with an opponent. Now he could also deem that the first header was a deliberate play with no challenge which resets offside so the player in an offside position C can get involved in active play after that first deliberate play. Timing and distance are all critical factors here. At the lower levels of the game with the PIOP in very close proximity and it all happens together it could easily be called offside and certainly if the ball rebounded or was deflected of the head of Player B on the first contact. I could also envisage a situation where Player C deliberately heads the ball way up in the air, follows it a distance for a second or two and then heads it for a second time. Any opponent would be entitled to challenge for the second header even a PIOP as offside would be reset on the first deliberate header.