Question Number: 31840

Law 11 - Offside 9/29/2017

RE: Competitive Under 15

Aaron Speca of Virginia Beach, VA USA asks...

With regards to a player in 'otherwise' offsides position during a throw-in, I saw two occasions in the same game where a throw was made toward a player behind the second-to-last defender and offsides was called when the ball deflected off of only a defender on its way to the player. I thought that the offsides violation would only occur if the ball were to touch an attacker before going to the player, who would then be in offsides position at the touch of the attacker. Am I correct?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

HI Aaron
You are correct. As described there was no offside and it should not been called. I suspect that it was an incorrect interpretation by the match officials in that a touch by a defender does not change DIRECTLY.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Arron ,
you are correct as usual the offside criteria for exemption is not affected if the ball is contacted by the opposing team be it deliberately or deflected.
If we are correct in the assumption the referee incorrectly believes since the ball did not DIRECTLY go to a teammate it is offside only a kind word in his ear at the next training mentor session can set him straight
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Aaron,
As per normal, you have provided a correct analysis of the situation. If the ball, from a throw-in, is touched by an opponent on the way through to an offside-positioned player, there is no offside offence.

One way to look at it, is to consider that a player can only, potentially, be eligible to commit an offside offence by being in an offside position at the moment the ball was last touched by a team mate. However the 'potential offside eligibility' does not exist if that last touch by a team mate was in the form of a throw-in, goal kick or corner kick.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 31851