Question Number: 25986

Law 11 - Offside 2/21/2012

RE: Rec Under 13

Mike of Boston, MA USA asks...

When raising the flag for offside, the location of the AR can occasionally be quite a distance from the location of the restart (i.e. the location of the offside player when the ball was played by a teammate).

Case 1) Attacker is way offside.
Case 2) Multiple attackers are chasing the ball toward the endline. The AR is following play and only calls offside when an offside player touches the ball.

What is the proper procedure for the AR to indicate where the restart should take place?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Mike
The AR after flagging for offside in the normal way should then move to the location parallel to the point of the offside offence and resume the signal by indicating the location of the offense by dropping the flag at an appropriate angle to a point in the field (far, middle, near side).
In Case 1 the position will be much nearer the goal while in Case 2 the AR will move back towards the halfway line to the location of the PIOP when the ball was played.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

The AR mechanics for offside in the US:

1. Continue to run with 2LD or the ball until the infringement occurs.
2. Square to field
3. Raise flag (wait for whistle)
4. Eye contact with referee
5. Move flag to indicate near, middle or far
6. Drop flag
7. Move to spot along touchline perpendicular to restart.

When the AR does #7 before #5, the referee and players may be confused about the reason for the flag. Why is the assistant referee running 20 yards up the line? Moreover, the AR does not want to do anything that might be confused with 'good goal.'

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

See Question: 26009