Question Number: 32441

High School 5/10/2018

RE: HS High School

Troy Adams of Naperville, IL USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 20203

Can an offsides penalty occur in your own defensive half? And could a ball be placed for a restart, because of an offsides call, in your own defensive half of the field?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Troy
Simple answer is YES.
In both NFHS and FIFA games indirect free kicks are awarded and taken from the point of offence. That included a player being penalised for offside. In offside the location of the offence offence is now where the offside positioned player touches the ball or interferes with an opponent.
Historically offside position of the PIOP at the moment the ball was played by a team mate was the location of the restart. The Laws had a major update in 2016 when IFAB amended all the Laws including Law 11
Throughout the Laws, the general principle is that a free kick is awarded where an offence occurs so this now applies to offside. A free kick can be awarded in a players own half if the player moves from an offside position in the opponents half to commit an offside offence in the players own half.
NFHS has outlined that the wording below will appear in Rule 11 of the 2018/19 Rule Book and I quote
** 11-1-4: A Player is offside and penalized if, at the time the ball touches or is played by a teammate, the player, in an offside position, becomes involved in active play by:
a. interfering with play or with an opponent or;
b. seeks to gain an advantage by being in that position.
A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent, who deliberately plays the ball (except from a deliberate save), is not considered to have gained an advantage. Indirect free kick at the spot of the infraction (even in own half), subject to the provisions in P 13.1.3**
Note the words (even in his own half ) which clarifies the location of the IDFK restart.
So in summary the IDFK can and should be taken where the player touches the ball or interferes with an opponent which includes his own half which is common now to both codes. It is a reasonably rare offence yet I have given it a few times and seen it on TV.