Question Number: 14921

Law 11 - Offside 2/28/2007

RE: Rec Adult

Neal Riedel of Carlsbad, CA USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 14870

Thank you all for this wonderful resource! I enjoy your thoughtful answers very much.

I think the answers to question #14870 were not quite correct. In summary, a defender deliberately handles the ball to prevent it from going to a player who was in an offside position at the time the ball was played by his teammate. Both answers seemed to indicate that the correct call is offside, IFK for the defending team.

While a player's position is judged at the moment the ball is played by a teammate, the player is not guily of the offense until he becomes involved in active play by playing the ball, interfering with an opponent, or gaining an advantage from being in the offside position. So I think we cannot judge the attacker guilty of offside when the ball is deliberately handled by a defender!

Put another way, what if defender did not handle the ball and the attacker realizes he is in an offside position and moves away from the ball without interfering with any defenders. We certainly would not judge him to be guilty of offside in this case, so we cannot judge him guilty when the defender handles the ball.

So my conclusion is DFK for the attacking team, possible caution for USB to the defender who handled the ball.

Your thoughts?

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Sorry Neal, my colleagues are quite correct here. FIFA's Q&A 2006 explains, in Law 11:

7. The ball is played to a player in an offside position by a team-mate, but a defending player touches it deliberately with his hand. What action does the referee take?

If, in the opinion of the referee, the player in the offside position
should be penalised for being involved in active play, he will penalise
the offside and restart the match with an indirect free kick *.
However, if in the referee?s opinion, the player should not be penalised for being involved in active play, a direct free kick, or a penalty kick, will be awarded against the player who handled the ball.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Hi Neal. My answer IS correct. It is backed up by the 2006 Q&A and by personal communication with USSF. What you postulate is believed by many people and it's simply wrong. I use just this question to teach young referees when considering offside. The important thing to remember is offside IS judged when the ball is played or touched by a teammate. Consequently, the handling occurs after. A simple way to visualize this is to imagine a player in offside position. The ball is kicked towards him by a teammate. Now ask yourself, what has to occur to reset offside? Did another teammate play the ball? No. Did the referee stop play? No. Did the ball go out of play? no. Did an opponent play and control the ball? No. Since none of these things happened, offside cannot be reset. It's as if the opponent that deflected the ball with his hand wasn't even there. If I had worded the question such that the opponent deflected the ball off his foot or butt, you wouldn't question the answer. Explain to me how a deflection off the hand is any different. I do thank you for giving the question some thought.

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

Main thing here is the referee must decide if the offside positioned attacker got involved in play or not. If the referee decides he did, then offside. Else, no offside and the dfk is awarded. Referee Contarino is correct in that the handling occurs after the ball is playeed and we judge offside at the moment the ball is touched or played by the players teammate.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

No problem people been thinking I am not quite right for a long time now! Cheers

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

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