Question Number: 17545

Law 11 - Offside 10/27/2007

RE: Rec Under 12

Nick of Valley Springs, CA USA asks...

My opponent kicked the ball and it hit his teammate, bouncing off that player toward me, I then kicked the ball and scored a goal. The referee called it off sides. Is this correct? I do not think it should have been off sides because none of my teammates touched the ball, or were off sides.
I would appreciate any responses because I feel I was cheated out of a goal!
Thank you

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Nick,
One can hope the referee would not deliberately cheat you out of a goal. He could be mistaken, forgetting the person who last touched and controlled the ball was an opponent and thus the rebound off the other opponent plays no part in your positional evaluation. If so it is tough luck, it sucks and one can possible hope the referee might seek some mentoring in the future to better understand offside!

However it could well be viewed by the referee as a double deflection, not a controlled last touch by the opponent.
If you were evaluated as offside positioned prior to that 1st defender's kick and the referee considered the attempt to kick by your opponent as not a controlled possession say a despert clearance which was misplayed off his teammate then rebounds to you, you could be considered as gaining an advantage thus offside. This assumes there was an offside evaluation prior to the defender's initial kick you were in an offside position at that point.
The fact the ball was played twice by your opponents will not reset your possible restriction if the referee sees neither of those two touches as controlled possession. Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

I made this mistake in my first year of reffing, got grief for it and looked it up and found I was wrong. I learned from that. Some refs have 10 years experience; others have 1 year experience repeated 10 times. Unless it was a deflection situation as Ref Dawson describes, have your coach report the ref to the powers that be in your league. That way he will learn from his mistakes rather than repeat them.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Hi Nick. Offside is only judged when the ball is played or touched by a teammate. Unless your teammate played the ball and it somehow deflected off 2 opponents to you, I fail to see how offside could be called given what you have described. Keep in mind that at U12 Rec you are very likely to get a referee that is very inexperienced. Hopefully it was a mental lapse.