Question Number: 26011

Law 11 - Offside 2/27/2012

RE: competitive Under 13

chai of sanger, ca usa asks...

first of all i know you guys get repeat questions all the time and i tried looking for this so that i wouldnt have to ask but evidently i didnt find it so....
is there offsides if all the defenders are on the other half of the field?. eg. coach had all the defenders come the the attacking half on a corner, when the corner was unsuccessful and the oppenent got a hold of the ball and passed it up to an attacker who was clearly offsides but the defenders were still on their attacking half, it was ruled offsides.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Chai
Of course it is offside. A player is in an offside position if he is nearer to his opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent.
Once he was positioned in the opponent's half he had only one opponent, the goalkeeper, between himself and the goal line. It makes no difference if all the defenders are in the other half.
To be in an onside position the attacker should have stayed in his own half until the ball was played by a team mate.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

It doesn't matter what half the defending players are in. The only player who this is a concern for is the attacker - a player cannot be offside in his own half.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Yup, we get this one a lot and it's perfectly ok for you to ask this one or any other question, even if we've answered it many times.

Your question is based on a seemingly insane myth that pulling all your players into one half of the field magically does away with the wording of Law 11. It doesn't.

A player is in an offside position if:

1. he is in the attacking half
2. he is nearer the opposing goal line than the next to last opponent
3. he is nearer the opposing goal line than the ball

In your question, the attacking player was in an offside position when the ball was played by a teammate. When he touched the ball, he interfered with play and was rightly penalized for an offside offense

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

See Question: 26019