Question Number: 27544

Law 11 - Offside 6/22/2013

RE: Adult

Nitish of Port Louis, Mauritius asks...

The is an offside law question. It all happened during a defence action where the defender while defending the ball in his half field, he fell down and the ball goes towards an attacking player who is onside and passes the ball to another attacking player who is on the same line of the defending player who is still on the ground. What is the decision of the assitant referee?

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

If I'm reading correctly, you say that the attacker was in line with the defender. That means the attacker was not in an offside position.

Defenders don't have to be upright, or even be on the field, to be counted in offside considerations. For that matter, they don't have to be conscious, although one would hope that if there's an unconscious player on the field the ref would stop play for the injury.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Nitish
A player does not have to be standing to be factored into an offside decision. Indeed if a defender is down injured the assistant referee must consider the position of that player in determining offside.
So if an attacking player is not beyond the 2nd past opponent then he is not in an offside position.
An example would be if a defender is lying in the goal area in front of the goalkeeper the attacking player just has to be level or behind the part of the body that is closest to the goal line that can legally play the ball to be onside.
In this example if the red goalkeeper was lying on the ground the offside line would be extended from the closest part of his body to the goal line in this case his foot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK9OvAlAUVE