Question Number: 16460

Law 11 - Offside 8/28/2007

RE: Competitive College

Sandile Mamba of Mbabane, Africa Swaziland asks...

Which instances other than during throw-ins where you can not judge a player for offside.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Goal kicks and corner kicks are also exempted from offside.

It is impossible to be in an offside position at a kickoff or penalty kick, if you are lined up properly.

Other times you will not judge for offside are when a player is not in an offside position, when a ball is last played by the opponents, or when there is no involvement.

Answer provided by Referee Debbie Hoelscher

Directly from a corner kick, directly from a goal kick and penalty kick.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Another instance is at a dropped ball. This used to be listed as one of the occasions offside was not considered but that was removed form Law XI in July 1990. It seemed mentioning this offered confusion in that everyone knew the ball was not in play until it touched the ground; so there could be no touch by a colleague before you received the ball, hence no offside possible.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Gil Weber

Sandile, Hopefully this will cover all possibilities.

A player who receives the ball directly from a teammate on a corner kick, goal kick, or throw-in cannot be offside. A player properly positioned for a kickoff or penalty kick who receives the ball directly from a teammate also cannot be judged offside. However, a player who receives the ball directly from a teammate on any other restart (direct free kick, indirect free kick, or a dropped ball) potentially could be judged offside.

A player cannot be offside if he receives the ball played to him by an opponent. However, if an opponent deflects (rather than controls and plays) a ball originally played by a teammate of the player in offside position, then that player in offside position can be judged to be
offside.

Finally, regardless of which team played or touched the ball last, a player is not judged to be offside if he is not participating in active play.

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

See Question: 16629