Question Number: 27232

Law 11 - Offside 3/9/2013

RE: Adult

ALAN OWEN of Swansea, UK asks...

A player runs with the ball past 2 players and tries to cross the ball, he is now behind the 2 players and the goalkeeper, the cross hits one of the players and then bounces off the goalkeeper back to the attacker who scores but he is still behind the goalkeeper and the 2 defenders, is he still onside because none of his teammates have touched the ball?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

You are correct - you can never be called for offside until after a teammate touches the ball. Your offside position is virtually recorded at that touch. This player's offside status was established long ago, before he ran past the opponents, so he is not offside.

But you said he tried to cross the ball - who was he crossing it to? Was it a teammate in an offside position? (Closer to the goal than both the 2nd to last opponent AND the ball?) If so, that player could be called for offside if he played the ball - didn't happen in your story. Or if he interfered with an opponent - perhaps he blocked the defender's path to the ball.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Alan
I believe your question refers to the disallowed goal in the West Brom V Swansea game. From video replays it is clear that the ball was not last touched / played by a Swansea team mate back to the player who crossed the ball (who is now in an offside position) so it could not be offside. A player can only be offside when the ball is played /touched by one of his team. In this scenario the defender has played the ball off the goalkeeper to the Swansea player so that cannot be offside.
The difficulty here for the AR is that at speed it looked from his angle of view, with perhaps the goalkeeper on the ground restricting his view, that the ball is played / touched by a Swansea player no 17 challenging for the cross in which case it would be offside. He does not have the benefit of action replay, multiple views here. I think the situation 'developed' for both the referee and the assistant to get the decision wrong. The referee has to help out the AR if he can see that the ball was not last played by an attacker to the player in an offside position. Clearly with player between the referee and the ball both missed that and without technology that is part of the game.
Here is an example @ Frame 4.00 on the video where an AR from his viewpoint thinks that the ball has been played by an attacker to a team mate in an offside position, he flags for offside and then the referee sees that the ball was played by a defender to the player in an offside position overrules the assistant and allows play to continue and a goal is legally scored
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2abds-p-57E