Question Number: 31141

Law 11 - Offside 1/1/2017

RE: Adult

Ref of Syd, Nsw Aus asks...

Hi

With the new changes to offside infringement taken where they touch the ball. Do assistants still signal like before or run with player until they touch it. In aleague I have only seen the same signal as before

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
Nothing has changed in respect of the signal for the offside offence. ARs should wait until the player in an offside position touches the ball or interferes with an opponent. Now the advice allows for the early flag when it is patently obvious that the PIOP is the only player that is going to interfere with play or an opponent. If there is a doubt the flag should stay down until the offence actually happens. The IDFK is now taken from that location. In some ways it is now more important for the AR to move until the ball is touched as that is the location the free kick will be taken from.
Now for many old habits die hard and many ARs flag as before. I see constant early poor flagging for what should be goal kicks, throw ins etc

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

The AR should stay with the ball if the OPP is chasing the ball and be aware that if the ball is headed into touch with doubt the OPP could get to it the AR follows the ball out! Then signals for the appropriate restart, be it a goal kick, a corner kick, a throw in or an INDFK for offside should the OPP actually touch that ball..

The mechanics of staying with play often altered in multiple match situations during tournaments where officials are doing multiple matches as staying with the ball is difficult! It involves a great deal of running which is why the officials of professional matches only do a SINGLE match given their mandate to STAY with play. I often see early flags where it is painfully obvious the AR is unable to stay with play from simply being too tired and just sort of best guesses at what an end result might be!

There is some confusion as to how ARs must now approach offside & whether or not they should cross the midline (they SHOULD NOT!) if an OPP runs back into his own half and interferes with an opponent or the ball where a restart occurs inside his own half. The problem being if the 2ND last opponent has drifted back towards his own goal line taking the AR with him but the OPP runs BACK into his own half the AR must not follow the OPP, only be AWARE of him. So to the CR should have some idea!

I suspect the AR , raises the flag if he sees involvement and when the CR whistles play, the AR get eye contact use the freehand to point and make an over and back motion much like basketball or lacrosse to signal (kind of like the Queen wave) lol indicating the OPP went back into his own half to recover the ball or interfere with the opponent. There is no reason to point the flag or cross the midline! Given the restart location is NOW directly tied to WHEN play stops and WHERE play is the restart location no longer requires the AR to signal positional status as a restart location . The CR should be easily to tell where the restart is based on THAT is WHY play was stopped!

However if an AR mistakenly risked staying with the OPP and the OPP NEVER interferes new offside positions are occurring up the opposition side of the field and a ball suddenly lobbed forward the AR could be miles out of position!

Although I have doubts if the OPP would be very far into his own half much more than say 10 yards. Like many farfetched situations, for example where both teams COULD have restricted offside personal in the same phase of play there could be some head scratching as what is the best thing to do by the AR but eye contact with the CR, a wave of the hand or point to the mouth (lets talk) should solve most any difficult situation effectively)

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

It sounds as if the A-League is probably using similar guidelines as those in recommended jointly in England by the FA, English Football League and English Premier League. They have issued a 3-page document and some of the main points it makes (for me) are as follows:

''The AR should raise the flag to indicate the offside offence. It is not required to retain the
flag across the field of play to indicate 'Far', 'Middle' or 'Near' as this may lead to confusion

ARs should not cross the half-way line when signalling or communicating an offside offence.

It may helpful for the AR to use their left hand in a 'right to left' gesture/arc signal to help
communicate that the player has moved back from an offside position.

Referees should take control of positioning of the restart as they would on any other FK
situation in their half of the field of play.''