Question Number: 23366

Law 11 - Offside 5/24/2010

RE: Rec Under 13

Annette of Canton, Georgia USA asks...

I'm a R9 soon to be bridging to be R8. I have a question about offsides. I was AR for one game, one of the attacking teammates was offsides and was passed to him but the attacking player did not have full possession of the ball but the attacking player was running towards the ball, the defending teammate reached it. So, I kept my flag down because I was not sure and I had parents complain but the attacking player never touched the ball. So my question is that should I wait for the offside player to have full possession of the ball?

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

With fans, you're never more than half right, sweetheart, so it is best to ignore them. Congratulations on upgrading! From your post it sounds like you were definitely listening carefully in class! Bravo!

The advice from USSF is to wait and hold the flag until the attacker gets involved somehow in the play. Remember it is not an offense to be in an offside position - the player actually has to DO something while there to become offside. Position + involvement = offside. Involvement without position - no offense. Position without involvement - no offense. They have to go together.

In this case, you were correct to hold your flag. The attacker could have stopped running for the ball at any time, could have turned away, and if that had happened and you had raised your flag, you would have done an injustice to the game. If he had touched the ball, you would have raised the flag because he was offside for interfering with play. If he kept the defender from playing the ball, or had gotten in the way of the defender you could raise the flag because he was now interfering with an opponent. Position plus the interference (involvement) = offside. But none of those occurred, so you were absolutely right to hold the flag and not raise it. Well done.