Question Number: 27747

Law 11 - Offside 9/11/2013

RE: rec/travel Under 16

Kevin W of Lebanon, PA USA asks...

In same game with lopsided score, losing Team A puts in their inexperienced bench players and 2 wings are constantly in the offside position and are also whistled about 5 times between them for offsides in the last 15 minutes. This same team also decides to pull their backs up to near the centerline to draw team B offside, which they did about 10 times in the last 15 minutes. This was the worst 15 minutes of refereeing I've experienced. Would you whistle the wings for a yellow card for 'persistant infrigement' or is this a tacky call? The latter scenario is just strategic and I would not consider any yellow card offense. It happens.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

While not explicitly stated in the laws, it's generally accepted that Persistently Infringing the Laws of the Game isn't supposed to apply for offside decisions.

Part of the reason for PI to exist is to protect the opponents from constant niggling fouls, as well as the impact they have on the game (retaliation, making the match more aggressive and so forth). Also, it helps prevent teams deliberately slowing the game down by fouling on every attack.

Consistently being offside does neither of those things, and is either the result of a number of tight decisions where the player simply moves slightly too early, or a complete misunderstanding of the law and positioning.

They're only hurting themselves by being offside, so I don't think a yellow card should be applied here.

I also find it strange that you seem to blame the referee for these players being offside. If they're offside, it's the referee's job to penalise them, even if it's frequent. This is good refereeing, not bad refereeing.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

By tradition, persistent infringement is not used for infringements of the offside law.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Kevin
Offside in these situation is the bane of referees. Not very pleasant and unfortunately nothing that can be done about it. The offside offence is generally through the tactics of opponents. As a result it is not USB.
Perhaps if a team is doing it deliberately, intended to use up time then that could be considered USB. That though is very rare and unlikely to happen.
Unfortunately just grin and bear it. Its up to teams, coaches etc to deal with it

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

The players were offside and punished for it. We don't consider persistent infringement when dealing with offside