Question Number: 28420

Law 11 - Offside 5/13/2014

RE: select Under 14

adam wallace of nakayama, yamagata japan asks...

i am confused on one aspect of offside.
an attacker is in an offside position when the ball is passed to him.a defender intercepts it before the ball comes to him.
can he track back and tackle the defender without being offside?is there a time frame of a few seconds when the previous play(offside) elapses and its ok for him to tackle?

thanks

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Adam
The referee or assistant has to decide whether an offside offence should be punished or play allowed to continue in these type of situations. Generally when the defender gains complete control of the ball and begins a new phase of play the offside offence is not called. That is usually after a few seconds.
There can be times at lower levels when the skill, ability of the defender does not allow him to use the ball before being interfered with by an opponent in which case offside is called.
One finds though that 'interfering with an opponent' happens almost instantly the defender touches the ball in which case offside can be called.
It should not though be used as a means to correct an error by the defender by giving the ball away. I believe most of these situation are decided by what is obvious interference or not by the PIOP.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

If the referee judges that the defender has not yet had sufficient time or space to play the ball, the referee can judge that the player in offside position has infringed the offside law by interfering with the defender. Once the defender has clear and unfettered possession of the ball, she may be challenged by any opponent. In between these two circumstances is a judgment call for the referee. When in doubt, however, the referee should decide not offside.