Question Number: 15016

Law 11 - Offside 3/20/2007

RE: competive Under 17

aaron of goshen, usa asks...

Before the season starts i was wondering if someone can explain the change to the offsides law. It sounds like a big change from the was the person who gave us the recert made it sound. is it really a big change and what is the change?

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

The person who gave you the recert had no idea about what he was talking about. Two years ago two Decisions of the IFAB were added to Law 11. They clarify what constitutes offside position and what interfere with an opponent, interfere with play and gain advantage mean. If the person was an instructor he needs a recert.

There Has Been No Change to Law 11. There has been clarification added.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Nathan Lacy

Nothing has changed in Law 11, as stated above. As usual, "clarifications" are provided because all too many make the law much more complicated than they need too. All the best,

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Aaron ,
I can only echo my colleagues thoughts.
As I often say common sense is not all that common. The offside law is a simple premise complicated because we try to match what we see with no clue of the guiding principle of offside.

IT IS NOT an offence to be offside positioned!

What had developed over past years is this mentality that a dodgy offside for no goal was better than a dodgy offside that lead to a goal. Whistles were blown and flags were being raised to indicate an offence when there was in fact no offence being committed. The CLARIFICATION was to help understand and enforce the existing law, not create a new one.

In essence the area for involvement is scaled down to a small bath towel or a narrow beam instead of a sweeping blanket or searchlight over a wide area

Ref Fleischer has an offside article on our front page website that is about as clear a picture as written words can paint. If you look through our data base you will see thousands of examples where we endevour to straighten out the confused and the plain outright wrong thinking that passes for rational thought on this subject.

The priority of an AR is to stay level with the second last defender because without proper position the offside call is in fact nearly impossible to determine accurately unless the seperation between 2nd last opponent and offside player is miles apart. It is a fact that two players moving in opposing directions at top speed can cover nearly 5 yards before you can blink the eye .
The sound of the ball being struck and a simple turn of the head causes a mini lapse in being able to follow ball and players and their relationship to each other as movement occurs.

FIFA encourages us to reward attacking play and a favorite motto of mine is for AR flagging issues.
WHEN IN DOUBT DO NOT WAVE IT ABOUT!
Below is a series of considerations that might prove useful when you study and implement this law during a match
Offside requires two parts
(1) POSITION
followed by
(2)INVOLVEMENT

Nothing an offside positioned player can do for himself can place him back onside.
Ask yourself are you aware of the 4 things required to do so???

When an onside player and offside player are in pursuit of the ball we wait for a physical touch by either player of the ball unless the offside player interferes with an opponent before this occurs.

Watch the FIFA video on interactive offside
Read the two decisions of law 11 closely
Note the playable body parts replace the old torso looking across
Note the clarity of gaining an advantage as rebounds where a last touch of the ball by a teammate is not affected by a deflection off an opponent
Note that interfering with play does not ALWAYS require a physical touch of the ball but ONLY if the offside player is the sole player and it is OBVIOUS he will be playing it before anyone else or before it goes out into touch or a collision is imminent which ties into interfering with play through position only as well as distract or decieve.

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

This year there are NO CHANGES. Last year they added the interpretation of what it means to be closer to the goal line. Last year the addition stated that if ANY PART OF THE PERSONS BODY EXCEPT FOR HANDS is closer to goal line than both ball and second last defender and of course on attacking half of field, that constitutes an offside position.