Question Number: 26595

Law 11 - Offside 8/3/2012

RE: Senior Adult

Steve Boyle of Doonan, Queensland Australia asks...

A defender plays the ball forward on an attempted clear. The ball hits and rebounds off an attacking player and lands to another attacking player who is in an offside position. since the ball was played by a defender, is the attacking player offside?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Steve
Law 11, the offside law, makes no distinction between whether the play / touch by an attacker is deliberate or not. In your scenario the last player to touch the ball before the touch by the player in an offside position was a team mate so that makes it clearly offside.
To quote Law 11 this is what it says
'' A player in an offside position is only penalised if, at the moment the ball
touches or is played by one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee,
involved in active play ''

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

As soon as the ball touches a teammate (even accidentally), offside position is again determined. A player in offside position when it touches the teammate is not eligible to play the ball.