Question Number: 15212

Law 11 - Offside 4/18/2007

RE: comp. Under 18

robert Fuchs of Boonville, IN United States asks...

An attacking player plays the ball forward and it deflects off a defending player to the defenders team mate who is standing in an offside position. Offside or not.

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

That depends if the player who ultimately receives the ball was in an offside position at the time the ball was played by his teammate. If he was at that moment then this play should be stopped for offside. If he was not in an offside position when the ball was played then play should continue.

To answer the primary part to your question, offside position does does not reset merely because the ball is deflected by a defender.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

If the teammate was in offside position at the moment of the ball being played and it is merely a deflection off an opponent, it is an offside infraction.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Robert,
a deflection of the ball off a teammate resets the offside criteria the same as any controlled pass or touch of the ball. A deflection of the ball off an opponent changes nothing what was, stays as it was.

It is possible for BOTH teams to be possibly guilty of an offside position at the same time!

In your situation the blue attacker tries to pass the ball forward into red defender that ball deflects off that red defender if there were blue attackers who were offside positioned when the blue pass was made the deflection of the ball off the red defender
does not reset their inability to participate in play HOWEVER it is considered as a LAST touched ball by the red team-mate even if not controlled and if any red players were offside positioned within the blue half those red players are not allowed to participate in play. If you can grasp that both sets of offside players are not allowed to participate in play you will be light years ahead of a referee who cannot!
Cheers

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

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