Question Number: 25983

Law 11 - Offside 2/20/2012

RE: Select Under 19

Brian of Bakersfield, Ca USA asks...

Boys U19 select. After a failed red attack the blue keeper has possession of the ball and is waiting for players to clear the area. There is still an opponent behind him when he distributes the ball. All red players are out near the half way line. The keeper distributes very poorly and the ball is intercepted by an opponent who is now attacking the goal. The red attacker beats the keeper and makes an easy shot on goal. The ball is clearly rolling into goal.
The team mate of the attacking player is directly in front of the goal and at the goal line.
Scenario 1 (actual)"As the ball rolls up to the goal line he blasts the ball in the rest of the way (about a foot). Putting an exclamation point on the goal I guess. Mind you the closest defender to the ball was the keeper about 15 yards away. Referee said no goal. Offside. Red was very upset. It even appeared that the blue players were surprised as well.
Scenario 2 " The red team mate at the goal line runs towards the ball but then attempts to jump over the ball. He makes no attempt to play the ball but at the last second the ball takes a funny bounce, hits the offside player and continues into the goal.
Scenario 3 " The shooting player hits a rocket directly on goal. His team mate ducks to get out of the way but it hits him and continues into the net.
In all three scenarios an offside player makes contact with the ball before is goes into the net. Does it matter if the contact is accidental or deliberate if it is clear that the ball was going into the net anyway?
Upon first look these appear to be trifling. If they were called for offside, might this be considered a "gotcha" moment thus possibly interfering with the spirit of the game? Or is this a scenario(s) in which offside has to be called?
Thank you for your time.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Brian
Law 11 makes no allowance for whether the contact of the ball is deliberate or not. Once the ball is touched by the player in an offside position then offside is called. In all three scenarios the correct decision is offside and the referee has no choice in the matter.
I would turn scenario 1 around and view the action by the player in an offside position as unbelievably stupid with little understanding of Law 11. The astute player will be making sure that his actions in no way could compromise the goal.
I had such a situation recently in an U12 game and the ball was destined for the goal when a forward clearly in an offside position ran in to kick the ball into the goal. I called offside and there was absolutely no complaint from the scoring team or coach. He saw it was offside and said to me that I had no choice in the matter.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

All 3 of your scenarios are offside. It doesn't matter why the player in an offside position touches the ball after the shot by a teammate. All that matters is that the touch happened.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Scenario #1. Clearly offside. Attacker that blasted the ball in was in an offside position when the ball was last played by his teammate. He interfered with play. No goal.

Scenario #2 Again, clearly offside. Doesn't matter that the attacker tried to avoid the ball, the fact remains that he touched the ball and thus interfered with play. No goal.

Scenario #3 Again, clearly offside. The ball came into contact with the OSP before it went into the net. No goal.

I remember at a recert a long time ago the instructor said if the offside positioned player was lying on the ground and was dead, if the ball touched him, this was offside.

Law 11 does not allow the referee the luxury of deciding if the offside was trifling. In the US trifling only applies to violations of Law 12. While there are a few areas the rest of the world allow for trifling offenses, Law 11 is not one of them

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