Question Number: 23144

Law 11 - Offside 4/19/2010

RE: Select Under 11

Eric of Belmont, CA USA asks...

Clarification on when an offside player is interfering.

Player A is the left wing of the attacking team. Player A is standing 10 yards behind the last defensive player and is alone in that section of the pitch. The ball is played to Player A--the ball travels within 10 feet and then past Player A and then rolls to a stop about 10 yards away from Player A.

Player A runs towards the ball and the linesman raises his flag. When Player A is 3 feet from the ball his coach yells out, 'don't touch it, you're off side.' Player A stops. The defender had been the second closest player to the, but as Player A was clearly going to be taking possession of the ball, moved not towards the ball but moved to take up a defensive position between Player A and the goal. When Player A stopped before touching the ball, there were about 3 seconds of confusion, at which point attacking Player B ran in from an onside position and played the ball.

Player B then dribbled towards the goal and scored. Player A ran along side Player B but did not handle the ball, nor did Player A come directly between the defender not the keeper and the ball carrier.

In the above situation, should the offside rule have come into effect, and if so, at which point during the course of play?

Thank you,
Eric

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Eric
A player in an offside position is interfering with an opponent if he prevents or impedes him playing the ball or he obstructs the player's view of the ball or he distracts the player.
The problem in this scenario was caused really by an incorrect flag by the AR who should have adopted a 'Wait and See' approach. No touch by the player in an offside position and the flag stays down. If he believed that the player in an offside position interfered with his opponent then the flag should go up, stay up and the offside awarded
Technically under the Law, if the OSP did not interfere with an opponent, this is not offside as the player in the offside position did not interfere with play by touching the ball and the player who eventually touched the ball did so from an onside position.
Now where the problems arise are
1. If there was no interfering with an opponent the AR raised his flag too early and that required the center ref to either accept the flag on the basis of interfering with an opponent or wave it down. You do not indicate if it was waved down.
2. The shouting by the coach may have distracted the opponents who have seen the flag go up and assume it is offside.
At this level I would personally have called the offside due to the flag and the distraction by the coach. It may not be the correct decision but it is certainly the best decision in an U11 game.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Welcome the evolving world of offside.

The flag should have stayed down. IMO, this is not an offside infringement. The attacker in an offside position moved toward the ball, but FIFA has indicated that this is not enough to interfere with play. If there is an infringement, it must be for interfering with an opponent, but this requires the attacker do something which interferes with the defender's ability to play or see the ball. The defender decided not to make any attempt to play the ball, and the offside law was not intended to provide cover for tactical decisions by defenders.

If the referee is 100 percent sure that the flag is wrong, IMO, the referee should waive down the flag. IMO, it is better to make the right call than cover up a mistake by the assistant referee. Frankly, this is easier with younger players. Older amateurs grew up in a different world of offside infringement, and neither team would believe the flag was wrong.

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