Question Number: 19102

Law 11 - Offside 5/16/2008

RE: Adult

Chris of Vancouver, Canada asks...

A Team Red defender has the ball. A Team blue player is behind him in an offside position. Team Red defender kicks the ball. What is the call on the following two scenarios:

a) the Team Red defender's kick deflects off an onside Team blue player to the offside Team blue player who pops it in the goal.

b) the Team Red defender's kick is headed by an an onside Team blue player to the offside Team blue player who pops it in the goal.

According to the laws of the game, I believe the first situation is a goal, while the latter is offside, but would like the panel's thoughts.

Thx.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Both instances are offside. Law 11 tells us that offside is determined "at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team" - it does not have to be a deliberate or controlled play. Any touch sets offside.

You may be thinking of the converse situation. When Red 1 directs a ball to offside teammate Red 2 which deflects off Blue 1, it is offside if Red 2 participates in play.

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Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Any deliberate or non deliberate action of playing the ball will ALWAYS reset the offside criteria for positional examination of the team that TOUCHES the ball. In both cases the ball went from a blue team mate touch to a blue offside positioned player the rebound or header makes no difference.
The interesting thing about DEFLECTIONS of the ball off players that although we reset offside positional evaluation for that team the OPPONENT’S criteria remain unaffected whatever criteria was in force or whomever was restricted is still bound by those restrictions.

If the red defender strikes the ball that resets his red team’s positional criteria if there are offside positioned RED team mates they are RESTRICTED from involvement. When the ball deflects off the blue opponent that resets the blue team's offside positional criteria, if there are offside positioned BLUE team mates they are RESTRICTED from involvement AND the RED restricted players from before at the time of the red defender' strike are STILL restricted.
Why? Because as of yet none of the things REQUIRED to reset positional restrictions has occurred. NO team has controlled ball possession. The ball has not yet gone out of play. It is possible although improbable that both teams have offside restricted players vying for the ball, black hole theory at work, still if you grasp this as well as you seem to grasp the points of law in your other questions I suggest you get certified as a referee because you sound like a smart guy!
Cheers


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Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Offside is judged when the ball is played or TOUCHED by a teammate. In your first example, the ball touches a teammate of a player in offside position. Therefore, the player in offside position may NOT participate in play. Since he did, this would be an offside infraction. No goal. You are correct about your second scenario.

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The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

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