You-Call-It 39

Question...

It is a careless foul by #12 blue on #17 red. who stumbles then recovers, it looks like he is free to continue up the touchline as referee you are thinking advantage when #17 spots a team mate in the clear and passes the ball, unfortunately the player receiving this pass is offside.
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Phil a Referee from Tarzana CA United States

Restart with a DFK from the location of the foul.

There are a few issues here, as the facts are a little vague. I will assume that this was in the attacking 3rd & not in the penalty area, where it is advised NOT to signal advantage.
1. Is "your thinking advantage" the same as playing advantage? i.e. was there an advantage?
2. How much time elapsed before the attacker passed the ball to his teammate?
3. Did the attacker squander the advantage by a deliberate pass to a teammate?

A referee always makes a decision before signaling that decision. So it is possible that the referee is applying advantage, even though he has yet to signal it. If 5 or so seconds had passed & #17 decided to pass to a teammate in an offside position, while he is running up the touchline, then he has squandered his advantage. The foul would have had no affect on his decision to pass. That, however, doesn't appear to be the case.

Advice to referees, p. 16 §5.6, mentions one of the factors considered in applying advantage is: "Potential – this clear possession of the ball enables the fouled team to continue an immediate and dangerous attack on the goal despite the foul. Note that this attack must not necessarily be defined only in terms of scoring a goal." Continuing up the touchline without being able to cross to a teammate who is not offside, does not appear to be "an immediate and dangerous attack on the goal".

Although it "looks like he is free to continue up the touchline", that isn't what happened. It's quite possible that #17, whose momentum up the touchline was unfairly interrupted, quickly got rid of the ball. I say "quickly" because the question says "you are thinking advantage when #17...passes the ball". Law 5, Powers & Duties of the Referee, states: "allows play to continue when the team against which an offence has been committed will benefit from such an advantage and penalises the original offence if the anticipated advantage does not ensue at that time". There is no advantage in passing the ball to an offside teammate.

In fact, of the 4 core elements of advantage (possession, potential, personnel, proximity), only the first seems to be met.

Therefore, I would whistle to stop play & indicate a DFK where the foul occurred.

Patrick Little a Referee from Champlin MN USA

No advantage ensued. Call the foul and restart with the DFK at the spot of the original foul.

Law 5 - The referee allows play to continue when the team against which an offense has been committed will benefit from such an advantage and penalizes the original offense if the anticipated advantage does not ensue at that time.

Alan Siegel a Referee from Rancho Palos Verdes CA USA

Signal and say "Advantage" as the offside positioned teammate may decide to not play the ball. But, once the offside positioned teammate does become involved in active play by playing the ball, blow the whistle and award a direct free kick to the red team from the location of the careless foul. Explain to the players that advantage was not possible because the teammate was in an offside position.

From the LOTG Law 5 - The Referee - Powers and Duties: "The Referee...allows play to continue when the team against which an offence has been committed will benefit from such an advantage and penalises the original offence if the anticipated advantage does not ensue at that time"

In this case, the advantage did not ensue since the receiving teammate would be sanctioned for being offside per Law 11.

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