Question Number: 23525

Law 11 - Offside 6/21/2010

RE: competetive High School

david tucci of woodbridge, ontario canada asks...

Player A1 is on offense and mounts an attack. He passes the ball to A2 who is in an onside position when the pass is made.

player A2 gets behind the defender. the ball, however, does not make it through defender B.

Player B attempts to kick the ball away, makes contact with the ball but the ball goes awry.

At this point the ball goes awry right to player A2 who collects the mishap and scores.

Is player A2 now gaining an advantage from being in that position and therefore offside, or is the play a continuation of the pass from A1?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Coach Tucci
No it is not gaining an advantage by being in an offside position as A2 was in an onside position when the ball was played to him by his teammate A1. There is no offside offence because A2 did not receive the ball from a team mate but rather from an opponent when he was in an offside position.
It would only be considered a continuation of a pass from A1 if A2 was in an offside position when the ball was first played by A1. The 'deflection' then by the defender would not reset the offside and that would be gaining an advantage by being in an offside position.

I might also add that it is a matter of judgement where A2 was positioned when the ball was last played by A1. If the referee does not have the benefit of neutral assistants he can be viewing play and then sees the ball deflect to A2 who recieves it in a offside position. That can be a very difficult call when the referee is on his own.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Offside position is noted each and every time a teammate touches the ball. So since A2 was not in an offside position when A1 last touched the ball, there is no way he can become offside until a teammate touches the ball again.

If the ball touches an opponent B between touches of teammates A1 and A2, there are two possibilities:
-- it could be a rebound/deflection, in which case the original offside considerations (if any) do not change.
-- it could be a controlled play by B, in which case no offside applies for anyone on Team A (but offside then begins for B's teammates).