Question Number: 27166

Law 11 - Offside 2/8/2013

RE: Competitive Under 15

Kris Smith of Beloit, Ohio USA asks...

At a tournament, a girl on my daughters team was dribbling down the line, kicked the ball hard enough to get it past the opposing attackers, caught up to the ball and went towards the goal and the fee called her for offsides. ??? She basically passed the ball to herself. Is that a legal foul?

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

One can not be called offside when the person who receives the ball is the same one who last touched the ball (i.e., passing the ball to oneself).

The most common reason for an offside call in this situation is that the referee saw another teammate in offside position running toward the ball and did not wait to see who reached the ball first.

The other teammate, however, could infringe the offside law if her actions interfered with an opponent's ability to see or play the ball. With that exception, however, play should have been allowed to continue.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Kris
As described by you this would not be offside as the offside infraction can only apply when a player kicks the ball to and touched by a team mate in an offside position or where the player in an offside position interferes with an opponent.
In this case the player played the ball to herself so she could not be called offside. Indeed at no time was she even in an offside position as she was behind the ball at all times.
Now there can be situations where the ball is played through by a player and a team mate in an offside position interferes with an opponent by preventing a defender from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent's line of vision or movements. That is offside.
Also as Referee Wickham states there can be situations were there is a player in an offside position runs towards the ball and the assistant or CR does not wait to see who actually plays the ball before calling the infraction. Here is an example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAyWNXtCLWE
That should not have been called offside. Indeed if the player kicking the ball had run on to the ball then that could not be offside either unless the player in an offside position interfered with an opponent which did not happen in this case.