Question Number: 32093

Law 14 - The Penalty kick 12/13/2017

RE: Competitive Adult

Robert Palmer of Los Angeles, CA United States asks...

# My team gets a penalty. I did not take it
# Keeper saves the penalty
# I run in with the other teams defenders
# I reach the ball and shoot from the rebound and score
# The Penalty taker is infront of me when I shoot

The referee calls it offside. Is this incorrect?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Robert ,
from JUST the description you give I would say, you CAN NOT be offside!
You COULD have encroached, entering the PA to early ahead of the ball being kicked.

But offside seems illogical given the criteria to begin the PA places EVERYONE onside in behind the ball when it is shot. The ball contacts the keeper so only his teammates would be judged for offside position, given they are defending in their own half I doubt that is an issue for them. But for the opposition to be guilty of an offside position and later involvement on that rebound off the keeper there needed to be a new touch by an attacking teammate to reset offside parameters. Even if the PK shooter HAD touched the ball if he was closer to the goal line than you there STILL is no offside position?

Best ask the refereee of the match to explain this in detail for it makes little sense to me?
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Robert
A player cannot be offside at a penalty kick. A referee must not allow any player other than the goalkeeper to stand in a position ahead of the ball to the right or left of the penalty mark outside the penalty area which would place the attackers in an offside position. It never happens yet it is in the Laws to ensure NO possible offside from the kick.
At the moment of the penalty kick, as every player other than the goalkeeper must be behind the ball, there is no player in an offside position so offside is not a possibility.
Now there is a likelihood of encroachment being called which also has an IDFK restart. If there are defenders encroaching at the same time as well the restart is a retake of the penalty kick.
So the option for me are
1. It was encroachment penalised by an IDFK
2. If it was called as offside it was made in error by an inexperienced match official.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Robert,
I agree with my colleagues that it does not seem from your description that there was a possibility of an offside offence. So if the referee did indeed say this was an offside offence, it was a mistake. Either a mistake in calling it offside, or a mistake in allowing you to be in front of the ball when it was kicked - although there is no hint of this in your description so I am guessing this was not the case.

Encroachment would seem to be a more likely explanation for any call here and the signal from the referee for an IFK could possibly have led to some confusion, I suppose.

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

See Question: 32100