Question Number: 28058

Law 11 - Offside 12/11/2013

RE: competiitve Under 17

Bon of Jacksonville, Fl Duval asks...

This question is a follow up to question 28037

First of all, thank you for your answers to my original question; however, I am stil a little confused, and it may be in the way I phrased the original question. Example: an attacker plays the ball to a player in an obvious off side position. A defender, by reaching out with his/her leg, makes contact with ball but does not prevent it from reaching the offside player. Does this constitute deliberately playing the ball (offside reset) or merely a deflection? It sounds from the comments it could possibly be subjective.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Bon
The referee has to deteremine if the contact is a deflection / rebound or a deliberate play of the ball. The answer to that question will determine if offside is reset or not.
Have a look at this FIFA video
http://garcia-aranda.com/offsideifab/eng004video007.html
FIFA determine this as a deflection and offside is not reset
Now compare it with
http://garcia-aranda.com/offsideifab/eng004video008.html
Here the defender 'plays' the ball to the player in an offside position and offside is reset.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Bon,

Just think about control. If the defender tries to stop the ball but the ball deflects off his leg, without control, and goes to an offside player then you penalise the offside.

If the defender was trying to knock the ball back to his keeper and did this (but perhaps it wasn't a great pass, allowing the attacker to intercept), then he's considered to have played the ball, so the offside player is free to play the ball.