Question Number: 35910

Law 11 - Offside 4/29/2025

RE: Competitive Under 19

David of LAKE WORTH, FL United States asks...

A player from team A is in an offside position. A pass is played directly to this player from within a group of players from both team A and team B. Neither the ARs or the center referee knows for sure which team played the ball to the player in an offside position. Is the player assumed to have committed an offside offense for receiving the ball from a teammate, or is no offside offense called because the ball could have been played by a defender and we don't call fouls unless we know we saw one?

Answer provided by Referee Joe Manjone

David,

As you are aware a player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent who deliberately plays the ball is not considered to have gained an advantage and would not be penalized for being in the offside position. In the situation you indicate, it is not known if the ball received by the offside player was deliberately played by an opponent or a teammate. Thus, no call can be made and to answer your question, the referee should only call a foul if he or she is certain a foul occurred.

Even in the situation you mention where the kick most likely was made by an attacking team player, unless you are certain, no offside call should be made. However, as in a game I worked earlier this week, coaches and spectators of the defending team will most likely be trying to assist you in calling this an offside.

I hope you have a successful spring season.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

A good referee and a good AR make the decisions they know to be correct to the best of their ability.
We don't like taking away good goals just like we don't like awarding iffy goals
But we can only see what we see, at the moment it occurs from the point of view that we have.
For the offside attacker to score a good goal that ball must have been kicked by a opponent and made no touch of a teammate on its way to him
Any kick by a teammate even if it deflected off an opponent would still be an offside offence should the PIOP touch the ball or interfere with an opponent.
For both the AR and CR to have no idea is hard to grasp. Generally the AR is instructed to keep the flag down if they are unsure. The fact the AR flag stayed down and the CR wasn't sure perhaps they might communicate "Privately" before he awards the goal if indeed there was one. You can be sure that one team is likely going to be screaming and while you can't take the non neutral input you might be aware if a mistake was made. I have picked clues up off of players and if this was a very close game and this goal meant the difference best sell your decision really well! Coming out of a scrum pretty easy to see it as a deflection. Just saying
cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi David
One of the key skills that referees must develop is observation and seeing what truly happened. All too often referees miss a corner, throw in, foul, offside and while we can’t be 100% correct we should certainly be getting most of the decisions.
A series of poor decisions or missing a key match incident will result in all sorts of problems most likely impacting on match control.

For me a ball going to a player in an offside position and the play into the mix of players is from an attacker it is going to take a clear deliberate play by a defending player to reset offside. A deflection or a rebound off a defender in a crowded zone is unlikely to be a reset particularly when it goes to an attacker in a clear offside position.
It is an easier decision to call offside than to guess that it is a reset particularly when the 2nd play is not clearly seen.
It is easier to explain no reset on questionable contact by a defender than to miss a touch by an attacker to a player in an offside position when it has already come from an attacker in the first place.
If the offside is tight that is a call for the assistant to make based on player positions at a split second. We know it can be difficult with VAR being needed at the highest level to help with decision making.
I watched the EPL semi final game between Arsenal and PSG where one goal was ruled out for offside. I thought it looked offside in real time yet defending players movements after the free kick made it look onside. I think without VAR it may have been given and indeed at lower levels it might not even be strongly contested based on the way play unfolded with the scorer at the time of the header being in a clear onside position.