Question Number: 15890

Law 11 - Offside 6/26/2007

RE: USSF 5 Adult

Jack Amaral of Porterville, Ca USA asks...

The other day when the US played Canada, in the last few minutes of the game an offside was called against Canada. I am sick and tired of Canadian announcers misinterpreting the rules of the game. The rule states if a defender "plays" the ball back, the attacker cannot be offside. The ball hit the leg of the US player which then set up the tying goal. THIS IS OFFSIDE. I just wanted to know how you feel about this call and then ignorance of the announcers.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Actually Jack the Law states offside is judged at the moment the ball is touched or played by one of his own team. It says nothing about opponents touching the ball, hasn't since 1978. Four years before that the International FA Board changed a diagram from Offside to Not Offside. We all have our opinions regarding what happened on that match. Ref Dawson has been the lead on our responses to the questions asked about THE offside.

The views of the panelists on this site regarding television commentators are not all that much of a secret. Last year one of us left the country to watch the World Cup rather than listen to pontifications based on immense ignorance.

Offside isn't all that complex but referees screw it up all the time. We get to sort out the good from the bad and I think we have a rather good handle on it.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Jack,
be wary of casting stones there mate because your assertions are incorrect. Nowhere in the laws does it state that a defender who plays the ball back towards his own goal and then that ball hits another one of his team mates creates offside for his opponent.

The ball can be deflected twice or even more , the attacker kicks the ball through as his team's last touch, then the ball deflects off one defender's head then off another defender's leg winding up at the feet of an attacker who was offside positioned before the deflections at the attacker's last touch then yes offside is realized because the deflections change nothing .

If a ball is played with control and thus possession is established it resets the opposing offside phase of play as it becomes a last touched ball for the team in control.

A ball deflecting off a leg of a player changes only the offside phase of POSITION for other team mates as it becomes a new last touch or creates involvement for that player

If a red opponent was the last player to touch the ball before the deflection of the ball off the blue player, the red players who were offside positioned at red's last touch are STILL prohibited from involving themselves in play even if they ran back into non offside positions. If there were red onside players they could run into offside positions and pick up that blue deflection free and clear.

There is no change in a team?s phase of offside on a deflection of the ball off their opponents what was, stays, onside or offside!

If you can understand that it is theoretically possible for both teams to have offside positioned players within the same time frame you are well on your way to understanding how a DEFLECTION changes nothing for established offside position by an opponent but resets offside position for that player's team only

The USA player who headed the ball to prevent it from reaching the far Canadian striker was stated by many announcers and far too many referees in my not so humble opinion, that it was a controlled possession and thus the near Canadian striker was free to continue play.

NO bloody way!

You need to judge the position of the defender, the fact HUME the Canadian went up to head that same ball and may have ever so slightly nicked it. The speed, height and line of sight of that ball were not the best to adequately bring that ball down with any real control

The header was a DEFLECTION off an attempt to deny the through ball. It is possible if the officials felt the far Canadian player was offside positioned at the time of the last Canadian touch of the ball(the through kick or the possible touch off Hume's head), the USA player heading the ball was interfered with by the Canadian trying to involve himself in the play. Or it could be a case of gaining an advantage IF the officials had decided there were offside positioned Canadian attackers prior to this head touch and only considered it a deflection. These offside positions occurred either at the time of the original through ball kick or possibly at the time if Hume actually nicked it with his head before the USA defender got his head to the ball..

Yes the officials could be wrong! No one is perfect but I have every reason to suspect the integrity of the AR was well intact and he made a decision that in his heart he knew was correct no matter what camera angle might find fault

Questions 15867, 15863, 15861 are worth a look.
We all have opinions personal and professional. As referees we are aware of ethical dilemma when we comment on each others performance. We know enough that right or wrong those with integrity make their own choices with clear conscience, whether or not we see it the same.

Many Commentators be they Canadian or not, have poor ethical boundaries when it comes to withholding an opinion, their desire to entertain or simply vent outweigh the intelligence of thought so rare is it we harkens to what they say about the laws of the game!. Many commentators are basically fans with a mouth piece to vent audibly.

Free speech allows the right to voice most any opinion regardless of its content! To some extent we here take advantage of that ourselves. We do try though to think before we stick our foot in our mouths and we are gracious enough to thank those who give us pause to withdraw said foot and try again if we are out of proper order
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Nathan Lacy

My opinion? Two thumbs way up to the AR for having the guts to make a tough call in a difficult situation in a very critical moment of the match which happened in literally a split second. Even now, with the benefit of instant replays and such, we are discussing this call. Give the AR credit for making a decision when he needed to. WELL DONE!!! As for commentators, my recommendation is that you turn the sound off and put on some music that you enjoy. Allow the match to unfold before you without the idiocy of, well, the less informed. To me listening to the commentators is kind of like listening to a 6 year old describe a surgical operation. All the best,