Question Number: 25377

Law 11 - Offside 8/31/2011

RE: Rec/Competitive Under 13

Greg Proulx of Manchester, NH USA asks...

Situation: A middle attacker has possession of the ball approaching the goal, he is about 12-15 yards away. Two attackers, one on the left wing and one on right wing are in an offside position closer to the goal. The middle attacker dribble past the 2nd to last defender, and continues to shoot and score. I am stuck on 'interfering with play' which is defined as playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a temmate. Neither winger touched the ball, however are they involved in the play by running along parallel with their middle attacker? What is exaclty playing the ball?

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Being in an offside position is not an offense. The wingers must do one of three things. Two require that the winger actually touch the ball. One concerns affecting the defender's ability to see or play the ball.

Interfering with play. This means touching the ball.

Interfering with a defender. This means doing something that interferes with a defender's ability to see or play the ball. (An example would be a player in offside position who screens the goalkeeper while a teammate is shooting.)

Gaining an advantage. This means touching the ball after it deflects off an opponent or rebounds off the goal post/crossbar.

In the example you give, this is a case of offside position, but not an offside infringement. The goal should be awarded.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Greg
There is no offence by being in an offside position. In this case the attackers in offside positions have not interfered with play ie touched the ball and from your description neither player interfered with an opponent by preventing the defender from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the defender's line of vision or movements or making a gesture or movement which, in the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts an opponent.
So the correct decision is to award the goal.
Had the ball carrier passed the ball to either player in an offside position then that would have been offside when either played the ball. BTW neither forward were in a good position to assist their team mate as neither could get involved in active play due to their offside position yet neither committed any offence

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

It sounds like it was possible that the wingers eventually were back in an onside position after the center player took the ball past the defense. If the wingers were even with or behind the ball, they were no longer in offside positions, regardless of the position of the defense.

Nevertheless, as the center player never passed the ball off to one of the wingers, they were not involved by interfering with play. If they didn't interfere with an opponent, they didn't become offside in that manner either. Good goal.

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See Question: 25434