Question Number: 23056

Law 11 - Offside 4/2/2010

Mike of Austin, Texas USA asks...

Can an injured defender still be considered as the second to last defender when considering offside?

Example: A defender is injured during play as the ball is cleared from his team's defensive side of the field and goes down. The referee doesn't notice the injured player is lying on the field no longer participating in active play.

As a counter attack is mounted, the attacking team gets a clear breakaway (OGSO) by playing a ball to someone who would clearly be offside if it weren't for the injured defender who maybe even his teammates didn't know was in the STL defender position.

What should the referee do? Stop the attack and tend to the injured player? Allow the attack to continue until the OGSO has been completed? What about AR position? Is the AR even with the injured player or upfield with the next closest defender?

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

After an incident in Europe in 2008, FIFA published some guidelines on this, which have been incorporated into a USSF Position Paper. If the referee believes the defender is not 'seriously injured' the defender IS counted for determining offside position. If, however, the referee makes a decision that the defender is seriously injured, the referee should stop play. When the defender is off the field, and cannot return to play by himself, 'the player may not participate in the play and must not be considered to be in active play (at this point, he would not be considered in determining offside position and should not be considered in the equation as either the first or second last opponent). This player, however, may not return to play without the referee's permission.

Most defenders are not seriously injured, and the referee ought not to stop play simply because a defender has remained on the ground to stop an opponent's goalscoring opportunity.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Referee Mike
The Laws can be tough sometimes but in this case if the referee has not stopped play to deal with the injured player then the AR makes the determination on offside off the second last opponent and if that opponent happens to be laying on the ground so be it.
In most cases the referee when he sees a player down will stop play particularly if he is not sure what the injury is. If he belives that is it is not serious such cramp etc he can allow play to continue. If it is a contact injury stopping the game prevents ill feeling and match control issues.
One of the real difficulties with not taking all opponents into account when calculating offside, is that players could just lay down if out of position and feign injury to gain an offside decision. The same was the case with staying off the FOP until that was changed this year.
UEFA in its training material show an example of a player down inside the PA on a contact injury, it is missed by the Referee who then allows another attack to develop after the ball is cleared and the defence is unaware that the 'injured' player is playing all the opponents onside and a goal results. It was shown that the Referee turned away to the halfway line, did not see the player down behind him in the PA, play swung around behind him which he followed and then the ball was crossed into the PA by which time the ref could not stop play for the 'injury' as it goal scoring opportunity and that the AR was correct in his calculation.
UEFA advice is that the referee should allow the initial attack to be completed and then deal with the injury before allowing further extended play. If it is a head injury it should be dealt with immediately.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Until the referee stops play for the injured player, he must be considered for offside purposes. If the player was down that long and the referee didn't see him, I would wonder where the AR was and for that matter why wasn't the down player's keeper screaming that the player was seriously hurt? Of course, the age and skill level is important. If this is a U12 rec game, play should be stopped immediately. As Ref McHugh states, UEFA has said to let the attack commence and then deal with the player, but that's at the pro level