Question Number: 17062

Law 11 - Offside 10/3/2007

RE: NAIA College

EM Pearson of medina, TN USA asks...

An offside question. You are the AR and play is in your half on the far touchline about 15 yards off goalline. There are about 8 players bunched together with one offensive player in offside position. Suddenly the ball pops out to player in offside position and he plays the ball. You have no idea if the ball came from an offensive player's touch or if defense is just trying to dump the ball back hoping to get a clearance.

My mechanic in this situation has been to give the offside flag and let the center know a player in offside position has played the ball. If the ball came from defense controlled touch then I expect to be waved down. What do you think? Remember I don't know who got the last touch.

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

This is not what I would do. Certainly, we do not want to allow an unfair attack on goal - but we have a mechanism to deal with this which I'll come to in a moment.

I would keep my flag down and keep up with the play, always keeping it in the back of my mind that there is a possible offside.

Then, if no goal is scored and the defenders take possession of the ball and move out of the half then you can forget about it and its no harm done to either side.

However, if a goal is scored - I would stand at attention and not do my usual goal signal of running 20 yards toward the halfway line. When the referee looks over to you and notices that you're still he should realize that you're telling him "there may be a problem here." Then he comes over and you tell him, "a player in an offside position played the ball on the initial touch through, but I was unable to determine who last touched or played the ball. If it was touched by the attacking side then this goal should be dissallowed for offside. If it was last played by the defending team then the goal should stand - so Mr. Referee who touched it, you make the call."

This allows play to continue so you aren't unjustly taking away an attacking opportunity when you aren't sure if a violation has occured. It's better to allow the play to continue and check back with the referee later than it is to simply stop the play on a hunch from something you couldn't see.

Sure the referee should wave down a flag, but often he will not do that as he won't know what is going on in your mind and the flag is up. Many refs see the flag up and blow the whistle, no matter what, even if that isn't the right way to go about it.

However, MAKE SURE the referee knows before play is restated that there is a potential offside. If you fail to do this, then you're also failing in your duties and as we know, you can't change things after the game is restarted.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Ref Dawson likes to say "When in doubt, don't wave it about". Sage advice that is. If a goal comes of the "offside" the referee needs the information you have in your head and Ref Montanino offers a very good way to convey that information to the referee.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

I think that's a bad policy. You should ONLY raise your flag when you are sure a player in offside position has committed an offside onfraction. If unsure, leave the flag down.