Question Number: 35

Law 11 - Offside

RE: Select (Metro) Under 10

Mark Sprenger of Orangevale, CA USA asks...

In Law 11 Off-Side it says that if the ball is touched or played by the attacking team then an off-side can be called if their was indeed an off-side. My question is this -- Does that include inadvertant touches? If the balled is played by the defending team and it glances of the thigh of the attacker and rolls to his teammate who is in an offside position, is it off-side?

Answer provided by Referee glenn

Great scenario, the ref is going to catch it no matter what here. ..Two things that the ref is looking for here. Position and active involvement. In the situation you described, yes he is offsides. You see the attacker is in an offside position, and he is now actively involved and has received advantage from it. So.....the flag should be coming up from the Asst Ref...I actually had something similar to this except it was a shot on goal, the ball hit the horizontal bar and bounced to an attacker in an offside position. Guess What? Yup, OFFSIDE. ..Position and active involvement.

Answer provided by Referee MrRef

5 October 2006 - Law 11 reads touches or is played by, so yes inadvertent touches count.