Question Number: 33502

Law 11 - Offside 7/3/2019

RE: Adult

Jennifer Ferguson of Rineyville, Ky United States asks...

After watching the women's World Cup game of the USA team versus England, my family had this question.
During one play the England team was called offsides. But before the play was stopped there was a collision in the box. The ref went to VAR to determine if a foul occurred. They were then awarded a penalty kick.
My question was if the play was offsides, why did the penalty count? I could see maybe giving a free kick at the point of offsides but why a penalty kick? Shouldn't the play have died at the point of offsides?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Jennifer
The incident you refer to was asked in Question # 33499
The opening line of Law 11 says it is not an offence to be in an offside position, While the England forward who was fouled was originally in an offside position the fact that the ball went to an onside team mate meant that there was no offside. The PIOP would needed to have interfered with an opponent to be called offside and that did not happen,
In the next phase of play the player was by then back in an onside position and she was fouled by a USA player.
So the only possible decision was a penalty kick.
Had the fouled player been in an offside position while attempting to play the ball from the cross the offside would have been called instead of the penalty foul.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Jen,
England gave the USA a good run but unfortunately the 1st VAR offside ruling took away their 2nd goal albeit the attacker was leaning forward by only a few inches. In the 2nd VAR review confirming the PK it was a very tentatively taken PK and the young English lass is likely chastising herself far more than anyone in being disappointed.

The 2nd VAR incident in which the PK was awarded never required a review for offside because no involvement occurred at THAT time. The attacker's offside status on the first ball played through was RESET by the new teammates touch on the pass back across the goal. I saw no flag was raised, the incident was only being looked at to see if the contact was result of the attacker placing her kicking leg in a back swing that caught the defender or whether the defender placed the leg in there to upset the attacker.
The fact that the former opp attacker who was LATER determined to be not offside positioned & then fouled with England awarded a PK after the VAR review resulting in only a caution ( Some of us thought if it was a PK offence that a red card for DOGSO should have been shown reducing the USA to 10)
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Jennifer,
The VAR does review offside in the lead-up to penalty kicks and red cards (although for all red cards except 'denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity', the red card would stand even if an offside was given).
And you are correct that if there was an offside offence there would be no penalty.

But in this instance, when the ball was first put through there was A1 in an onside position, and A2 in an offside position. A1 receive the ball and A2 wasn't involved.
Offside is essentially reset every single time an attacker touches the ball. Every time A1 touched the ball to control or run with it, we reset our judgement of offside position.

By the time A1 put the ball through again, A2 was in an onside position (to be in an offside position you need to be closer to the goal line than both the 2nd last line of defence AND the ball). The fact that she was in an offside position earlier in the play doesn't matter.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Jennifer,
In regard to the penalty incident, there were questions raised by some - including question #33499 on this site as to whether an England player (Ellen White) was in an offside position earlier on during play. As we said in answer to that question, even if White was in an offside position earlier on, it is not an offence simply to be in an offside position and she was not in an offside position at the only relevant point in time, which is when the ball was played to her by Demi Stokes.

Where she was when previous touches on the ball occurred, is not relevant to the determination of an offside offence, it only matters where she was when the last touch by a team mate occurred, prior to her involvement in active play.