Question Number: 18033

Law 11 - Offside 11/30/2007

RE: Premier Under 13

Avery Haskell of overland park, Kansas USA asks...

Team A is taking a corner and they have all of their players, including defenders and goalkeeper, in the box in an attempt to score . Team B gets the ball and begins to sprint toward the open goal. A team A defender manages to get a little past half into his own half to try and stop the play. The player on team B dribbling the ball realizes he cannot dribble past this quick defender. He passes the ball to a teammate, who is on team B's half, past team B's only defender who is on their own half. Is this offside? The laws of the game state the attacking player must be past the second to last defender (usually a goalkeeper (1), and a last defender (2)) to be offside. But since their is only one defender back on their half is he off? Also, does it matter if there were a second team A defender who was on his own half versus in this situation there is only 1 defender on the half which team B defends?


Thanks in advance and sorry if this is confusing. =P

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

I'm having a little trouble sorting out who is where. If B1 gets the ball and sprints toward A's goal, only to be faced with defender A1, and B1 then passes the ball to B2, who is still in B2's half of the field, then there is no offside, since you cannot be offside in your own half. If B2 was not in his own half of the field when B1 passed the ball, then he is offside, unless he was behind B1 (closer to B's goal) when B passed it to him (if he is behind the ball when it is passed by a teammate, he cannot be offside). Hope that answers your question.

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

In this offside question the referee's assistant must determine where the second attacker is in relation to the ball when it is touched or played by a member of his own team. Remember, Law 11 does not define offside position in terms of the second last defender it uses the less restrictive terminology of second last opponent or last two opponents.

When the referee crew thinks in these terms the fact a player is the goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or striker will never enter the equation. AND should the thinking be in accordance with that laid forth in Law 11, nearer the opponent's goal line than the ball and the second last opponent, the offside line will always start out as the ball THEN the second last opponent. Your thinking starts with the second last opponent and ignores the ball! If you include the ball as the first of the two criteria in determining offside position, assuming in the attacking half, your question might answer itself.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

You say he passes to a teammate that is still in his own half of the field if I read this correctly. Therefore, there is no offside position