Question Number: 17875

Law 11 - Offside 11/12/2007

RE: Intermediate Ref AYSO Adult

Rolf Bennett of Santa Barbara, Calif US asks...

An attacking team on a throw in, throws the ball to the attacker who is in an offside position. A defender is able to slightly deflect it, but the ball goes to the attacker who subsequently scores a goal. Is the attacker offside once the defender made contact with the ball.

I feel the attacker was in a fair position on the throw in and that it is unfair to penalize them for a deflection by the defender. One of those gray areas that I'm sure the answer will be "must receive the ball directly on a throw in"

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

You've got two choices of interpretation here, both of which will result in a "No Offside" call.
(1) - The player received it directly from the throwing teammate, and the defender's interaction was merely a deflection which does not change anything in the offside equation.
(2) - The defender's interaction was a controlled play on the ball, in which case the original throw-in target received the ball from an opponent, not a teammate.

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

Play should continue, the referee should not stop it.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

You have missed something on this one and it is what puts it into your area of gray: offside position is evaluated at the moment the ball touches or is played by a teammate NOT an opponent. You can see in this case the moment to evaluate offside position has not yet arrived.

There is a second thing we can use to remove more gray: it is not an offence in itself to be in an offside position.

Regards,

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

See Question: 17914