Question Number: 25024

Law 11 - Offside 5/29/2011

RE: Travel/Select Under 14

Don Mueller of Alexandria, VA USA asks...

Can you be offside on a free kick?

There is no offside offence if a player receives the ball directly from:
? a goal kick
? a throw-in
? a corner kick

Assume plenty of time to set up.
You're not gaining an advantage???


Url below clouds the issue
http://www.askasoccerreferee.com/?p=550
This implies that if you are within 10 yds you can't be offside.

Thanks,
Don Mueller

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Offside does apply on free kicks - it doesn't apply on the restarts you stated, when the ball has gone off the field.

As for the 'Ask A Soccer Referee' posting you gave, that's a separate situation. The attacking player was put in an offside position only because the defenders moved to within less than 10 yards of the free kick. They committed the first infraction, so that is what should be punished, not the offside.

An attacker within 10 yards of the ball certainly could be caught in an offside position, for instance if the defense didn't have time to recover and defend at all before a quick kick was taken.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Don
Scenarios such as this rarely happen in games. Defensive walls rarely come forward as a unit placing a player at the wall in an offside position. Also the AR has to make a judgment on the exact position of the attacking players when the ball is kicked. Even the slightest movement towards goal before the kick places the attacker in an offside position
As a referee not subject to USSF advice my answer to this question on our site was that offside must be called as the referee cannot play advantage on an infringment by the attacking side. As the 1st offence was encroachment and advantage cannot accrue due to the offside the referee must go back to the original encroachment offence, caution for not respecting the 10 yards and allow the free kick to be retaken.
You can take it from the Laws of the Game that a player can be called offside within 10 yards of a free kick and that there is no waiver in this regard.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Hello Don. Jim Allen's answer does not imply or mention any distance negating an offside position. If you read the last part of his answer, it's clear the attacker WAS in an offside position when the ball was played. When the wall moved toward the ball they put the attacker in an offside position. But when they moved they were no longer the required 10 yards from the ball. When the ball was played the attacker would have been called offside when he played the ball except the defenders had already committed a violation of the Laws before the ball was played. That's what Mr. Allen is referring to when he says the referee gave advantage and allowed the goal.

The key to seeing this is to understand that once the defenders have committed an infraction the attacking team cannot commit an offside offense as play has either stopped or the advantage clause has been invoked. In either case, there can be no offside offense.

In the question on Mr. Allen's site the attacker has not committed an offside offense because the defenders committed an offense first which has nothing to do with how many yards from the ball the attacker was.

All this said, the attacker can NEVER be offside if he stays even with the wall because he will then NOT be nearer the opposing goal line than the next to last defender. In this case it just happens to be 10 yards. That does NOT mean every time an attacking teammate is within 10 yards of the ball he will be onside. He could be 10 yards from the ball and no defenders had gotten back in position quickly enough so that the attacking forward would be nearer the opposing goal line than both the second to last defender AND the ball thus being in an offside position and were the ball played to him and he played the ball, the AR's flag would go up.


The important thing to remember is the position of the attacking forward in relationship to the ball and the second to last defender. Don't be concerned with how many yards the attacking forward is from the ball as that does not matter.

Also, all this has to do with free kicks as there is no offside offense regardless of position if the ball is received directly (i.e. does not hit another teammate on the way to the attacker) from a goal kick, corner kick, or throw-in

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

See Question: 25046

See Question: 25047