Question Number: 26683

Law 11 - Offside 8/25/2012

RE: Rec Adult

Randy AufDerHeide of Lenexa, KS United States asks...

My question is in regards to Offside.

As the rule states, There is no offside offence if a player receives the ball directly from:

a goal kick
a throw-in
a corner kick

To me, the rules is extremely clear but I wanted to get your feedback on this ...

Can you be offside on your OWN goal kick. I think the answer is clearly NO.

If you disagree with my assumption, can you please clarify/defend/explain your reasoning? The reason I ask is because the internet is littered with a ton of OPINIONS but I've never seen an official response from FIFA - which probably means they don't think they need to make one! ;-) Thanks in advance!

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Randy
When the exclusions in Law 11 mentions goal kick, throw in, corner kick it refers to a team's own restarts. So a player cannot be offside directly from these restarts.
The Law makes the implied assumption that a player cannot be offside from any opponents' deliberate plays or restarts so it does not mention that in the Laws.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

A player can only be offside if the ball is kicked/touched by a teammate. Thus there is no need for any exemption from restarts taken by an opponent. The exceptions refer to receiving the ball from a teammate's restart.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

No. The exception for goal kick is the team's own goal kick. Red X is never in offside position when the ball is last played and controlled by Blue Y.