Question Number: 22283

Law 8 - Start and Restart of Play 10/19/2009

RE: Rec, Select, Comp Under 19

Chris Nwakobi of Folsom, CA USA asks...

I did a recent game and wanted feedback on an occurrence. My AR (inexperienced)raised a flag to indicate offside, not quite understanding that offside is at the point the attacking player kicked the ball to his teammate. Realizing he raised the flag, I blew the whistle, but waved him off. The attacker clearly had beaten all the defenders and had a clear shot on the goal. The attacker scored and I allowed the goal. The offended coach was very upset. She stated that the players stopped play at the raising of the flag and the whistle.

After the game, the attacking coach agreed with the defending coach that the goal should have been disallowed.

What would have been the appropriate call?

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

If you need to wave down your AR, by all means do so, but blowing the whistle stopped play. Allowing play to continue after blowing the whistle was an error on your part, and the claim that it disadvantaged the defense was true and correct.

Once you blew the whistle, there was either an offside call at that point or you had to do a dropped ball for an inadvertent whistle. You should have disallowed the goal, and brought the ball back out to where it was when your whistle sounded, and have a dropped ball restart.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Referee Nwakobi
Unfortunately you made a mistake here by blowing the whistle. The whistle unlike the raising of the AR's flag is an instruction to stop play. The proper decision should have been to wave down the AR's flag and allowed play to continue. As you blew the whistle and it was blatantly not offside then you should have stopped play, apologised to the attacking team for your mistaken whistle and restarted with a dropped ball from where the ball was when you whistled.
You live and learn.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Blowing the whistle is a signal to stop play - when you do this, even inadvertantly, you have to stop play.

If you're a defender and you think an attacker is offside, the AR raises the flag and the referee blows the whistle, what are you going to do? Are you going to chase down the attacker anyway? Not likely - everything there appears as if play is being stopped for an offside infringement. Referees need to put themselves in the players shoes to try and figure out what impact their actions have.

Unfortunately, the goal should have been disallowed.

If you are absolutely certain that the AR was incorrect, then wave him down and shout 'keep playing!', and if anybody complains then simply remind them to play the whistle. You may well still get some complaint if the goal is scored, but at least you know that you did the right thing.

If the defence stops at the raising of the flag, that's their own fault though. It's the whistle that's the important factor.

If there's any doubt, you should give your AR the benefit of the doubt and consult with him at the next stoppage. If you think the error was based on him misunderstanding the law, you probably should've had a quick chat anyway.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

I'm not sure I understand some of what you say. Offside is at the point the attacking player kicked the ball to his teammate? What do you mean by that? Offside position is judged when the teammate kicks the ball. The offense of offside doesn't occur 'at the point the attacking player kicked the ball to his teammate.' The offside offense occurs at the point where the teammate was when the ball was kicked, not the point where the ball was kicked and there's an offense only if the player receiving the kick touches the ball or interferes with an opponent. If the player receiving the kick was in offside position when the ball was kicked and proceeds to touch the ball (thereby either interfering with play or gaining an advantage by being in an offside position, depending on the circumstances) or interfere with an opponent the restart is at the point where the offside positioned player was when the ball was kicked by a teammate.

But reading into your question, I think you thought the AR raised his flag merely because the attacking player was in offside position, not because an offside offense occurred. Regardless, you saw the flag up, and you blew your whistle. By doing that, you stopped play. Period. You say you waved the AR off, but you actually didn't as you stopped play. You can't blow the whistle and THEN wave the AR down. You wave the AR down by NOT blowing the whistle and giving the AR a hand signal indicating you disagree with his offside call. While it is true that players should not stop playing just because they see a flag up, it is also true that upon hearing the whistle every player is SUPPOSED to stop playing. Why on earth did you allow the attacker to continue play and how could you possibly allow a goal AFTER you stopped play? Small wonder the offended coach was upset. You instructed her players to quit playing by blowing your whistle and when they did stop as instructed, you allowed a goal against them!

What you did was clearly a misapplication of the Law and the game is protestable. What you should have done if you blew the whistle but didn't believe there was an offside offense is restart with a dropped ball for an inadvertant whistle but you simply cannot allow play to continue once the whistle is blown. If you wanted to waive down the AR and allow play to continue, you should have given the AR a signal to lower the flag and , although not required, say "no offside" or "keep playing" or "play the whistle" or something to indicate you were waving the AR down.