Question Number: 27084

Law 11 - Offside 12/27/2012

RE: Rex Adult

Iain of Gateshead, UK asks...

This is inspired following an argument with a friend about the Evans OG/ Cisse offside goal in today's man utd vs Newcastle game.

The ball is played forward towards a player who is in an offside position. The defender is unsure whether the attacker is in an offside position, but is unable to gain full control of the ball. He does manage to get a foot to the ball, but can only force it behind for a corner.

As the defender has only put the ball out of play because of the attacker in an offside position, is the attacker interfering with play? Should it therefore be a free kick for offside even though the attacker has not touched the ball, or should the ref award a corner?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The attacker didn't play the ball, so that rules out becoming involved by participating in play. Gaining an advantage by the offside position is also ruled out, because you don't say that the ball rebounded to the player in an offside position (PIOP).

So the only thing that is left is interfering with an opponent. Sometimes, rarely, the PIOP is so close to the ball that she can't avoid interference. There was a USSF training video a few years ago where the PIOP ended up between the ball and the goalkeeper, so the keeper couldn't get to the ball, and offside would be called.

However, mere position of a PIOP should not be considered interference if that player doesn't do anything to interfere - doesn't block the opponent and doesn't make any movements to distract the opponent. If the defender reacts to the position of the player and puts the ball out of play, that is not offside. Only in one of those rare alignments noted above would there be offside.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

This sort of scenario is a concern that often comes up. In a nutshell, if a defender makes a bad decision due to a player in an offside position then that's his tough luck. Simply being there isn't enough to be considered 'interfering with an opponent' (unless he's in the way or blocking the view, but that's not what we're talking about here).

Following from that, even if the defender has been drawn out of position to mark an attacker in an offside position who is moving around this still wouldn't be a ree kick.