Question Number: 35848

Law 11 - Offside 12/26/2024

RE: AYSO All-Star Under 11

Stephen Landis of Agoura Hills, CA United States asks...

An offensive player is in the offside position and their fellow player kicks them the ball. Should I call offsides if:
1. The ball never reaches the offending player as a defender gets to the ball first and starts to dribble up the field. As a linesman, do I raise my flag to signal to the center referee that offside was noted knowing that the center referee should signal play-on and let play continue or do I not raise my flag at all.
2. The offending player runs back to the ball and receives it in an onside position.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Stephen
Thanks for the question
The easy answer is the second scenario. As the player in an offside has interfered with play by coming back from an offside position to play the ball that is offside and the flag should be raised. The IDFK is taken from where the PIOP touched the ball.

In scenario one it is a judgement call. Remember it is not an offence to be in an offside position so the player has to do something more such as interfering with play or an opponent before offside is called. That interference has to happen before an opponent takes control of the ball and begins a new phase of play.

So in Scenario 1 it reads that the player in an offside position did not interfere with play or an opponent so there is no likely offside. It is a judgement call and if the defender takes unrestricted control of the ball then there is no offside.
If there is interference by the PIOP then the flag should be raised. A referee may wave the flag down if there is an advantage in allowing play to continue.
Sometimes on doubtful offside with the defending team getting on with play with no impact the need for a flag may be doubtful so the better decision can be to keep the flag down.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for your question.

As an AR you should only be raising your flag for offside if, in your opinion, an offence has occurred.

As Ref McHugh says, the 2nd one is simple. It's offside.

There is no method for a player to put themselves back onside. Run back onside or into their half to receive the ball? Doesn't matter. All we care about is where they were when the ball was touched.

The only way Player In an Offside Position (PIOP) can become onside, is if they move onside before the ball is touched by a teammate or controlled by a defender.

Offside is reset at every single attacking touch, or when a defender controls it. Every time one of those happens, we take a mental snapshot and delete the previous mental snapshot. Attacker dribbling the ball? Every touch, a new mental snapshot.

As for your first - generally speaking, we dont' penalise if if the attacker doesn't touch the ball. Running for the ball isn't an offence. Having a defender move out of position to mark them isn't an offence. Generally, they need to touch the ball.

Now, if a PIOP is running for the ball that's passed to them and it's clear that it won't be intercepted or go out, or that an onside attacker isn't going for it, then we may flag early. Similarly if it's going to be a close contest with the GK, you can flag early so the ref can stop that contest before it happens.

Now, yes, there is an offside offence of interfering with an opponent. In the situation you describe, if the attacker immediately challenges the defender and affects them, that could be an offence.

But given the defender has controlled the ball and started running with it, that tells me this hasn't happened, so no offence.