Question Number: 25152

Law 11 - Offside 6/29/2011

RE: Adult

ali of cairo, egypt asks...

i.m asking about interference with an opponent by obstructing line of vision of goal keeper if the striker is not intended to be in front of gk ,shall the offside counted or not ???
i want to know your opinion in this goal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQwQsfpBh58
if the offside striker should be punished or not

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Intent is irrelevant; the player is either involved in active play or not.

FIFA used to give an example where a player was lying on the ground with a minor injury and play continued. The defence moved up leaving the player in an offside position. A shot was put through to the keeper, who was very close to this player lying on the ground. As a result, the player's position meant the keeper was unable to reach the ball - the decision would be offside.

In the video you've given, the player clearly isn't blocking the path of any player, so I'd be more concerned about whether he's blocking the view (even standing there, trying to stay out of the way, he can be guilty of this).

I don't believe he's blocked the view of the keeper at all, as such I believe it's a fair goal. If the ball had crossed in front of the player, then the keeper would have lost sight of the ball and we'd have a potential case for an offside infringement.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Ali
No offside offence here. The player in an offside position has not clearly obstructed the opponent's line of vision in this case the GK.
The reason Law 11 was amended over the years was to ensure that goals such as this are not disallowed due to the offside position of an opponent when that player has no effect on play.