Question Number: 28349

Law 11 - Offside 4/18/2014

RE: Select Other

Paul of Enon, OH USA asks...

I have a very tight quarters, potentially offsides question.

In my case, the red attacker was in possession of the ball and in the attacking half of the field. A blue defender closed down on him and caused him to stop his forward progress; both players had a foot on the ball.

At this point, the red attacker tried to go around, to his right, of the blue defender... his left foot still in contact with the ball. The blue defender held his ground and the red attacker lost contact with the ball. Pressing up against the blue defender, the red attacker went around the blue defender's back and regained possession using his right foot.

In my scenario, the red attacker was briefly in an offside position during the time he lost contact of the ball with his left foot and pressed around the blue defender's back. The defender did not move this entire time and did not play the ball to the red attacker. I did not flag offsides but I've been questioning myself since. I didn't flag offside due to the close proximity of the struggle for the ball; however, the red attacker was (for a millisecond) in an offside position. Not sure what I should have done.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Paul
Offside only applies when a player receives the ball from a team mate so there must always be two players from a team involved. A player cannot be offside if he plays / touches the ball himself even if he somehow manages to be ahead of the ball.
In this scenario it reads to me that the Red attacker was on his own with no team mate involved in play / playing the ball? In which case it just cannot be offside.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The red player's offside position is noted at the time the ball is last touched by a teammate. In your scenario that last touch was well before the events you describe, so there is no offside offense.