Question Number: 16090

Law 11 - Offside 7/23/2007

RE: Amateur Adult

Marky Walker of Chesterfield, England asks...

I'm confused by the whole offside rule if the ball is played in the box....... if there is a defender in front of the attacker but the ball is played in the box towards the attacker is this still offside.

I hope you can shed some light. I've confused myself just trying to think of it now ha ha.

Cheers in adavnce.

marky

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Offside is not that difficult. Chuck Fleischer has an excellent synopsis on our main page. Basically, offside involves 2 things; position and action. It is not an offence to merely be in offside position. A player is in offside position if in the attacking half of the field and nearer the opponents goal line than BOTH the ball and the next to last opponent. If in this position when the ball is touched or played by a teammate, the player may not become actively involved in play by interferring with play, interferring with an opponent, or by gaining an advantage by being in an offside position. It matters not where the ball is played from nor where in the attacking half the offside player is so don't even consider the penalty area as being special when judging offside.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Keith states the offside Law pretty succinctly. The penalty area has no special significance when it comes to judging whether an attacker is in an offside position or not. As Keith notes, it doesn't really matter where the attacker is located in the attacking half if he is closer to the goal line than the ball and the second to last defender. If he is, he is in an offside position and that's fine as long as he doesn't affect play by interfering with an opponent or play or gaining an advantage as a result of his offside position (assuming the ball was last touched by a member of his own team). If the ball is played to him in an offside position by a defender, well, then there isn't any offside!

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Marky,
Offside is a simple thing made incredibly hard because it is over thought.
The box I assume is the 18 yard penalty area of which the 6 yard goal area is included. Any DFK foul by the defense in here against an attacking opponent is always a PK. As to being in the attacking third it has no significance with how offside is decided! It is but a small part of 1/2 the field of play

Offside is determined by position first when a player is within his opponent's half and at the moment the ball is last touched or played by his team mate that player is closer to the opposing goal line then both the ball and the second last opponent! This positional determination can occur from just inside the centre line on the opposition side of it to just inside the opposing goal line. Once the POSITIONAL reference has been established any further involvement in dynamic play can create an INDFK out for an offside infringement!

It is NOT an offence to be offside positioned! Given that people move as the ball moves much can occur when next the ball is played. The important point here is nothing an offside player can do by himself can save himself from offside. The offside positioned player must refrain from involvement even accidentally until the ball either goes out of play, the opposition regains control and possession or a new touch of the ball by a team mate recalibrates the positional requirement again.

There are a few wrinkles for example if a player is off the field of play beyond the goal line for offside purposes he is considered to be on the goal line. If over into touch again where he is off the field.
You may not yet be aware that ANY playable body part not the player as a whole, qualifies as being closer to the goal line. This does not include the arms of course but the rest of the body that can legal have the ball come into contact with and be deliberately played.

In static or slow moving positions an AR will see if the foot stride of an attacker takes him a toe closer then say the back heel of a defender to the opposing goal line.
This of course is much different in dynamic play when in full stride players pass each other at 20 miles an hour in opposing directions. Since we are told when in doubt do not wave it about the chance for an error is much greater as we in fact best guess these situations based on our ability to stay with the second last defender and accurately determine the last touch of the ball.

Always remember that a keeper is but one of 11 opponents and usually the last opponent by nature of his position but NOT ALWAYS! It requires TWO opponents one who COULD be the keeper but any two opponents to set aside the positional requirements at the touch of the ball by the team mate.

Remember positions by players change while the ball is in flight HOWEVER, if there were offside players and on side players at the time this ball was kicked. Their status will not change even if when the ball arrives it appears onside player are now offside positioned and offside players may have moved back up field or defenders moved past so they look onside. In fact the original onside player can freely direct the ball for goal while offside positioned but the offside player even if he returned to his own half still is restricted from playing the ball even while in an on side looking position.
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

If the attacker at question was closer to goal line than ball and 2nd last defender and on attacking half of field (when ball last touched teammate), then he is punished for offside if and only if he gets involved in the play. The penalty area has nothing to do with it.