Question Number: 18933

Law 11 - Offside 4/30/2008

RE: Competitive Under 14

Jay of Santa Cruz, CA USA asks...

Red player A passes the ball toward red player B who is in an offside position. The ball is intercepted by Blue player. If Red B is nowhere near Blue and Blue kicks the ball poorly to an onside red player-too bad for Blue. No whistle. If instead Red B has run to the Blue player as Blue is recieving the ball and red B challenges for the ball, easy call: interfering with the play and offside. Same senario but now Red B is 5 yards away heading toward Blue and the first touch by Blue is rushed as a result of Red B and the pass is flubbed-is this going to get an offside call? My question is how close does Red B need to be to Blue before we hear the whistle?

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

That depends doesn't it? If the assistant flags for offside and the referee agrees there is going to be a whistle, right or wrong there has been an offside infraction. Yup, we're back to the seven most important words in the world "If in the opinion of the referee". And that is how it's done. International FA Board Decision 2 of Law tries to explain exactly what interfering with an opponent is.

That decision doesn't go into what the defender is thinking or how he reacts to the presence of an offside opponent, it tells us what the offside player has to do to be considered interfering. AND they say in the opinion of the referee too.

That is howcum we get the big bucks, we are expected to know the Law and have opinions. Once we have an opinion the Law tells us that opinion is final...

Regards,

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Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Proximity to affect play is interesting as it remains an opinion of the referee to see what that player does to interfere. Contrary to popular mythology what a defender tries to do or what a defender thinks plays no part in the decision even if the final decision by the referee is in complete agreement with what a defender thinks. That is because only the action of an offside player is being considered.
Your first case assumes control and possession but if kicked poorly it could also be classified as a deflection, the fact no opponent is nearby does not mean the control is automatic.

It is certainly reasonable to see the closing down of a defender by an offside attacker that he is trying to be involved and it is hard to imagine a defender wanting to allow any through ball to a breaking attacker who is the recipient of that pass without trying to intercept it unknowing the opponent was in fact offside positioned

We are instructed to NOT let any collision occur between the players when the ball is pursued by an offside attacker and we are not obligated to WAIT for a physical touch of the ball IF that offside attacker is the ONLY player in pursuit. So the question remains what possession is being exhibited and is there time to effectively use a secondary touch to play it with control before a collision could occur?

Think on it if a high or bouncing ball comes in the defending player takes it off the chest,it bounces up and then down to his thigh he drops it back to the ground and the offside player is there to challange. Five yards away at full sprint at the time the ball hits the chest could get him there by the time that ball is the defender's feet

A through ball by the opposition as a first time hit rolling ball designed to be cleared from danger is either going into touch or towards an offside opponent by the result of a poor kick by a defender who is under 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 20 yards away of an offside opponent either bearing down to challenge or running into position for the pass to arrive as the intended recipient of the pass.
Where is indfk for offside ?
Where is a throw in?
Where is no call play continues?
Cheers


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