Question Number: 14761

Law 11 - Offside 1/30/2007

RE: Under 13

Ken Woodmansee of San Dimas, CA USA asks...

A player (#1) is in an offside position near the penalty kick spot. From midfield, another player (#2) from the same team, dribbles toward the goal, passing player #1. When confronted by the goalkeeper, player #2 passes back to player #1 who scores a goal. Since at the time of the last pass, player #1 is no longer offside, should a penalty be called? It seems that player #1 gained an advantage by being in that position, but was no longer offside when the ball was last played.

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

No offside! Since player 1 was not closer to goal line than ball at time of teammates pass, he was not in an offside position.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Ken,
the first part of offside states it is not an offence to simply be in an offside position.

Once the ball is carried past the offside positioned player by his onside teammate and the ball is touched by that teammate it resets the offside position as the former offside positioned player is now behind the ball and thus no longer denied the right to participate in play. The drop back pass to the now onside player is fine BUt what now occurs is the teammate who dropped the pass back could now himself possibly be offside positioned when the shot is taken and could be considered if he was active in some manner.

When a second last defender is not part of the offside equation the ball becomes the critical point of yes or no to offside position!
A player is in an offside position if:
he is nearer to his opponents? goal line than both the BALL and the second last opponent

Gaining an advantage has nothing to do with this! I quote you that offside decision as it now appears in law 11

Gaining an advantage by being in that position means playing a ball that rebounds to him off a post or the crossbar having been in an offside position or playing a ball that rebounds to him off an opponent having been in an offside position.


What you MIGHT or could have considered, did the offside positioned player INTERFERE with the opponent BEFORE the ball was carried past him? If an offside positioned player interferes with the keeper in blocking or forcing the keeper to have to move around him to go and play the onside attacker that could have fullfilled the active phase required to award an indfk out for an offside infringment . The key point here though is that would be determined before the ball was dribbled past him and touched by the teammate resetting offside criteria back to zero!
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Law 11 Decision 2 has narrowly defined gaining an advantage: "Gaining an advantage by being in that position means playing a ball that rebounds to him off a post or the crossbar having been in an offside position or playing a ball that rebounds to him off an opponent having been in an offside position."

Now that the player is no longer in an offside position, because he is behind the ball, offside no longer applies. I would also look for interference as Ref Dawson has noted.

The other thing I'd add, Ken, is that as a referee you should use the correct terms. Not to sound "know-it-all", but for clarity. Offside is an IFK offense, so there can never be a penalty kick because of it. Not to mention that it would be impossible to be offside in your own penalty area. We should say that fouls and offenses are called, not penalties.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

All the assistant referee need know is where the player is when the ball is last touched or played by his team mate and if he is doing something he shouldn't after the last touch. Just standing there is not an offence itself, he must do something too.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Hi Ken. The only thing I'd add is to memorize Law 11 Decision 2. Eliminate "gaining an advantage" from your thinking other than what Law 11 Decision 2 states. The reason FIFA added this was referees all over the world were coming up with all kinds of crazy rationalizations as to what constituted gai ning an advantage. Now you know what they mean. Only judge offside at moment a teammate plays or touches the ball