Question Number: 27327

Law 11 - Offside 4/20/2013

RE: rec Under 10

sushant of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts United States asks...

I am having trouble calling offside and recognizing it. How can I easily recognize it?

Thanks,
Sushant

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Are you talking about as an assistant referee? There are at least two big points that you must do. Stay in line with the second-to-last-defender (or the ball, if that's closer to the goal line) so you will be able to see who is and isn't offside. And watch the little game in front of you, between the attacker and defender, and not the big game on the rest of the field.

But as you reference U10, you may be talking about calling offside as a referee without neutral assistant referees to help you. That is harder to do; you basically need to be 100% sure the player was in an offside position before you can call it. And that means that you will miss some close ones. Look downfield when you can so you can see how play is developing before it happens. But at younger levels, the reason to call offside is to thwart blatant cherry-picking. You don't need to play a game of inches with them. Do your best to call what you can see, and don't obsess over what you can't see.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Sushant
I would refer you to the following resource material which you will find helpful

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afdeveloping/refereeing/law_11_offside_en_47383.pdf

http://www.fifa.com/lotg/football/en/flash/start.html

You do not mention if the recognizing offside is the interpretation of Law 11 or the actual viewing of attacking play. It is recognized that some offside calls are exteremely difficult to judge based on the fast movement of players and the position of the player has to be judged relative to the playing of the ball.
Here is a simple resource
http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_football.cfm?page=3156
The test shows how difficult it is on some calls and it demonstartes the need for ARs to concentrate on the position of the 2nd last opponent and to keep the playing of the ball in the peripheral vision.