Question Number: 17920

Law 11 - Offside 11/15/2007

RE: High School

Jerry Walker of Ukarumpa, EHP Papua New Guinea asks...

A player is very much in the offside position (20 metres) and the ball is kick down the field past him. He runs after the ball and hears someone yelling, "offsides". When the player gets about a metre away from the ball he relizes he is going to be called for offsides and stops and turns and walks away from the ball. I assume he is not offside because he does not play the ball, or is chasing hard after a ball considered interfering with play?

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

All I can say is a rather unsatisfying "It depends." Most likely scenario is he will be called for offside, because we have position and involvement (from interfering with play). It is vaguely possible he would not be called. If, for instance, an onside player is making a run at the same ball, and the offside positioned player pulls off and steps away so the onside player has it, the flag will (should) stay down. A great deal depends on what else is happening as this guy takes off after the ball from an offside position.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Jerry this one is right back in your lap. Offside position is easily established and from that point forward he isn't going to be able to get involved in play, interfere with an opponent or gain some advantage from his offside position. What the referee crew is supposed to do here is judge whether or not he gets involved. We know he is not interfering with play or gaining advantage. Simple decision that. The big deal is if he is interfering with an opponent and that's going to be difficult to judge.

The referee must be of the opinion opponents are being affected by what he is doing! If they choose to stand and in unison raise their arms and dry their deodorant appealing for offside then THEY have chosen to referee and that's our job not theirs -- let play run would be a good decision. If they ignore him and mark up other players then he has not interfered with them, has he?

Remember, it is not an offence in itself to be in an offside position AND he does not interfere with play until he actually touches the ball! From there one must witness the situation in order to judge effectively. Then, even you and I might judge differently based on how we interpret what we see. That is quite alright [facts connected stuff] but one would hope we all are on the same page.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

This is a judgement call. Is he interferring with an opponent by being that close to the ball? Possibly. If the referee or assistant referee believes he's interferred with an opponent, there will be an offside call. If the opponents are all far from the ball and not involved, or obviously ignoring him, I'd say keep the flag down. As an aside, I'll bet regardless of his involvement, most ARs will raise the flag before he gets this close to the ball and they'll wrongly do it for interferring with play. Then the referee has to decide whether or not to wave the flag down.

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

This player was clearly in an offside position. The issue here is did he get involved in play w/o actually touching the ball. As Referee Fleischer has pointed out, no way can we say that he gained an advantage or interfered with play. We are left with did he interfere with an opponent. We must look at the reaction of the opponents. If his motion to the ball causes an opponent to rush at the ball, then we must call it. If however, the opponents mark another player...then the flag should stay down.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

If that ball was in fact being chased by a restricted offside positionally determined player and he is the only player likely to play that ball if you watch picture 19 on the FIFA interactive video it clearly states/shows that an AR could indeed raise the flag before an actual touch of the ball occurs.
If there is ANY doubt as to whether the player will reach that ball before it goes into touch or another onside team mate might also get to that ball then we keep the flag down, UNLESS an opponent is interfered with in some manner where again no touch of the ball is required to create offside INDFK out!
Cheers

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

See Question: 17981