Question Number: 17919

Law 11 - Offside 11/15/2007

RE: Girls Varsity High School

Steve of Vero Beach, FL USA asks...

For purposes of resetting a player's Offside status, does the defender heading the ball qualify as "control"?

In a game last week, an attacker was in an offside position when her teammate crossed the ball. The cross was headed by a defender to the offside attacker. The header slowed the pace of the cross, but did not alter the direction of the path of the ball to any real extent. The ball lands at the feet of the previously offside attacker who is now even with the 2nd last defender.

My call: Offside.

Reasons:

1.) In offside position when ball played by her teammate.

2.) I considered the header as a deflection, not control, since it didn't alter the path of the ball and the defender never gained possession.

3.) Eventhough the attacker was even with the defender when she touched the ball, her offside status was set when the ball was played and was never reset by the header.

Oh yeah, the offside attacker turned and scored off of the cross, so my offside call was not popular. My question is, was my call correct?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

If you decided that the header was a deflection, not control, then your offside call was correct.

Heading the ball should be given the same consideration as a single-touch kick when deciding if it was a controlled play or not. Players can make a stab at a ball with the foot and only manage to deflect it, not control it. They can do the same with their head. The difference between the two is that contact with the foot is often on a concave surface, which would allow better control with a single touch than the convex shape of a player's head. In other words, it's often harder for a player to control the ball with a header.

That's why we get paid the big bucks, to make those difficult and often unpopular decisions.

Answer provided by Referee Debbie Hoelscher

If your opinion is that the action of the defender was without control, then offside is correct. "Heading the ball" to the attacker in the offside position would include a very obvious and controlled play on the ball. If the attacker in the offside position at the initial touch of their teammate's play then played that ball after it sort of "skeetered" across the top of the defender's head, it would be correct to judge them to be offside for gaining an advantage. They would neither be interfering with play, nor interfering with their opponent in this case. One could liken this kind of thing to a deflection off the goal keeper....

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

You are correct in that you viewed the header as lacking control. Therefore, offside. I'll say this however. There are a LOT of referees that don't believe a header ever constitutes control. I am not of that opinion and if the header is done properly yet the ball goes somewhere other than intended, I am still likely to reset offside. To me, this is the same as a defender kicking the ball to an opponent yet doing it cleanly. By that I mean it's obviously not a miskick with the ball spinning crazily all over the place. Opponent lines up a header, hits it cleanly, I'm likely to consider that to be control.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Steve,
A ball contacting the head is likely to be a deflection in my opinion. Deflection is not possession.
If that ball is controlled with precision as in a pass back to the keeper where the defender is unaware there is opponent lurking offside a controlled header could fit the rule of being able to use the ball subsequent to contact equals possession as it was a designated play where the ball was last touched with usable control to a teammate for possession that was intercepted by an opponent.
Cheers

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

See Question: 18008