Question Number: 17966

Law 11 - Offside 11/20/2007

RE: Select Under 15

Bill Bryant of Seattle, WA USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 17950

Thank you, Referee panel, for your collective responses. The consensus opinion appears to be that I did not make the correct call because the offside player, while making a play for the ball which was ultimately struck successfully by his onside teammate, failed to "interfere with an opponent". However, in doing some further research on the www.ussoccer.com site, I came across the following Memorandum dated 4/18/07 and written by Alfred Kleinaitis, where he states the following:
-----------------------------
On August 24, 2006, USSF issued a memorandum based on the developing
interpretation and application of Law 11 which specifically laid out the proposition that "interfering with play" requires either touching the ball or MAKING A CREDIBLE MOVE TO PLAY THE BALL (my emphasis). An attacker in an offside position must act (touch the ball, MOVE TO THE BALL (my emphasis), interfere with an opponent, block an opponent, distract or deceive an opponent) to be declared offside.
------------------------------
The offside player made a definite, strong and credible move to the ball and arrived on the scene a fraction of a second after his onside teammmate. Had the onside player not struck the ball, the offside player would have been the next closest to the ball.

My question now is what does CREDIBLE MOVE entail? What are the tests?

One other point to consider: because the offside player was in the blindspot of the keeper, away from the point of attack camped out at the far post, had I been the keeper I would not have been able to determine if that player was offside. I would have to view him as a credible scoring threat - I now have to gauge which of the two players will arrive at the ball first in order to take the right position on the goal line.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

The memo refers to a SINGLE player in an offside position not to one player, or more, who is eligible to play the ball and at least one who is in an offside position. If this is the case you MUST wait for the touch.

Placing yourself as the goalkeeper and guessing what he would think is not how to judge offside. Offside id judged by determining offside position and then preventing those offside from participating in play by playing the ball, by interfering with an opponent or gaining advantage from the offside position.

The "credible move" is defined as the assistant has no doubt the offside positioned player is going to continue on and play the ball or no doubt there is going to be a collision between the offside positioned player and the goalkeeper. Here we raise the flag to "Save" a few seconds or prevent an injury due to the collision. Note: your raising the flag does not mean the referee must whistle for offside if he has another opinion, especially if the offside player gives up the ball after your flag comes up and before he actually touches the ball.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

As Ref Fleischer points out, this memo does not apply here. Check the latest Advice To Referees where we are told to keep the flag down if there's a chance an onside player may get to the ball first.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Bill, you were supposed to go check out the later memo, dated May 4, 2007, also signed by AK (as are all USSF Position Papers). It says: " In situations where an attacker is coming from an onside position and another attcker coming from an offside position, each with an equally credible chance of getting to the ball, (rest is all underlined) it is imperative that officials withhold a decision until either it becomes clear which attacker will get to the ball first (even if this means having to wait until one or the other player actually touches the ball) or the action of the attacker coming from the offside position causes one or more opponents to be deceived or distracted." There is a follow-up paper on July 26, 2007 which basically reiterates this same premise - if two attackers are going for a ball, one off and one on, you simply HAVE to wait to see what will happen. And you may have to wait until one of them touches the ball. Regards.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

For those who may have difficulty finding memos and position papers, many of them are located at http://www.ussoccer-data.com/ under the "Topics of Interest" link.

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

See Question: 17970