Question Number: 24339

Law 11 - Offside 11/17/2010

RE: AYSO Under 16

Gregg Ferguson of Palos Verdes, CA USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 24289

In this scenario, or in other 'over and back' scenarios (player in offside position when ball is played but retreats to receive ball in an onside position) would you consider not calling the Offside if the player did not gain an advantage from the offside position? Say, if the offensive player beat one or more defenders to the ball who were closer to where it was played to?

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Offside is pretty black and white, for the most part. Whether the infringement is advantageous to the attacking team isn't a consideration.

If it was we'd be complicating matters too much - for instance, while the other defenders were closer, perhaps they weren't aware of the attacker in the offside position and he is still able to make good of the situation by the simple fact that he wasn't seen? We start introducing too many things for the ref to think about, too many things which start to involve guesswork, and more things for the referee to get wrong or be inconsistent about.

Thus, we keep it simple. If he was in an offside position at the moment the ball was kicked and interferes with active play, there will be a free kick.

I personally believe that many offside infringements don't really see much of an advantage to the attacking team , but that's the nature of the simplicity of the law.

Incidentally, 'gaining an advantage' is one of the 3 ways in which an offside positioned player can become involved in active play (the other two being interfering with play and interfering with an opponent), and it specifically refers to collecting a ball that's rebounded from a defender (including the goalkeeper), the goalpost or crossbar.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Gregg
Gain an advantage and gaining an advantage by being in an offisde position are two entirely different terms and should not be confused.
"Gaining an advantage by being in that position" means playing a ball that rebounds to him off a goalpost or the crossbar having been in an offside position or playing a ball that rebounds to him off an opponent having been in an offside position.
Whether a player gains an advantage or not after being in an offside position is none of the referee's concern once that PIOP interferes with play. For example a player can be in an offside position and then runs from that position after the ball is kicked and wins the ball in front of the defenders. All teams will believe that possession of the ball in front of the defenders is an advantage and perhaps the fact that the defender did not challenge for the ball was because of the offside position of the attacker or the fact that he came from an unseen position. Indeed the touch can be in the PIOP's own half yet the infraction is still called and the IDFK is taken from where he was positioned when the ball was kicked by a team mate.
So the Law is clear. If a player in an offside positions meets any one of the three conditions for offside it should be called irrespective of whether there was perceived benefit/advantage or not in his position when he became involved in active play.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 24617