Question Number: 31176

Law 11 - Offside 1/12/2017

RE: Adult

Referee of Syd, Nsw Aus asks...

The new offside law interpretation confused me with being offside and not touching the ball. Can you u explain the below videos too.


https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154842038880688&id=165660885687

https://youtu.be/LoIXujp_aVg

Do you FIFA videos examples of new offside Explained

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi
Think on it the same as ANY foul. ONLY IF YOU ARE SURE there is a reason do you blow the whistle to stop play!

On both videos there is NO WAY you can say it was completely obvious the OPP was involved, An inkling perhaps in the minds of others but it is the CR who decides. No way I am convinced it was offside thus no whistle from me!

The first one is a good goal as the player scoring was not offside positioned at the time . The OPP in the middle in my opinion in no way prevented the keeper from seeing or choosing to challenge and no opponent was disadvantaged

The second one was also a good goal only because the direction of the ball was away from the OPP into the opposite corner from the direction he was moving. I also think the distance and the fact the CR was convinced the keeper was not unsighted despite the AR perhaps thinking he was interfering with the line of sight. The CR appeared to have a better view then the AR to decide if the OPP was in fact lined up blocking.

There will ALWAYS be some confrontation as it is still an OPINION whether it is or is not offside! The ONLY opinion that matters is the match CR the rest mere speculation!
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi
The opening line of Law 11 states and I quote * It is not an offence to be in an offside position.*
That has been the Law for a very long time so nothing has changed there. Now the player in an offside position has to do something more to be called offside and that is either interfering with play by touching the ball or interfering with an opponent by one of the following
# 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.

In the first video the player in an offside position does nothing and he does not touch the ball nor does he interfere with an opponent so there is no offside there. The player that scored came from an onside position so the decision was 100% correct.
On the second one it is somewhat more greyer in that it is opinion based on whether the player in an offside position clearly obstructed the goalkeeper's line of vision to the ball. It does not look to me that the goalkeeper did not see the ball from the moment it was kicked until it went passed him. There are four players in front of the ball and GKs expect that on many shots. He made a great effort to make the save so one can opine that there was no clear obstruction of the line of vision. That was the referees opinion which is why he gave the goal. The only comment I would make was the situation could have been more easily resolved by the AR not raising the flag for offside yet just standing there which tells the referee that he is not happy with something which in this case would have been a possible offside. Without the offside flag there would have been less furore about it as it looks like the AR gave offside and it was overturned by the referee. It eliminates comments like *not listen to the AR* and * agreed with the AR that it was offside*
At the moment we are awaiting some better video material from FIFA as to the advice on interpretation. There are older material out there which is still up to date yet some might be somewhat dated.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

When it comes to offside, the (relatively) easy ones are when the player actually touches the ball, for then they are clearly involved in active play. The more tricky ones (including the ones you show) usually involve the "interfering with an opponent" scenario.

I think the thing to bear in mind in such incidents is that all the changes to the offside law in recent years have been made in an attempt to ensure that only players who are directly, clearly and materially involved in active play or clearly prevent an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball are penalised for being in an offside position.

For instance, the offside law used to have a phrase about a player who makes ''a gesture or movement which, in the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts an opponent''

Now, this phrase was immediately preceded by one about preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball and it was something of a matter of debate as to whether deceiving or distracting on its own was enough or whether such actions had to also prevent the opponent from being able to play the ball.

By removing the 'deceiving or distracting' clause I think the IFAB have made it clear that the latter interpretation was correct and the intention was always that when it comes to interfering with an opponent, whatever the offside-positioned player (OPP) does, it has to have a clear and direct effect on the opponent's ability to play the ball.

As Ref McHugh says, the laws have said that simply being in an offside position is not an offence for a long time now. In fact I would argue that even though that specific phrase was not in use at the time, it has been the case ever since the very first laws of the game were written. Back in 1863, the FA's original Laws of the Game held that it was only an offence if a player in an offside position were to ''touch the ball himself, []or in any way whatever prevent any other player from doing so ...''

I think that both of the examples you give are ones that test the limits of the current interpretation of offside but as Ref Dawson says, it is not possible to say that it is completely obvious in either case that the OPP has directly, clearly and obviously interfered with an opponent in a way that materially affected the opponent's ability to play the ball.