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OFFSIDE REF!

Quote: “There are more frequent arguments over offside than any other laws in football.”

The Law regarding offside is relatively simple, but applying it correctly takes good skill, logical thought and good observation.

One difficulty a referee experiences is that in his earliest games he is invariably working on his own. At best, he will have two assistants attached to clubs. The two assistants may be substitutes waiting their turn to play, or friends and family of the players, anxious not to upset their friends or relatives. Very often, the first decision an inexperienced referee has to make is to decide whether to ask his club assistant referees to watch his own team’s attacking players or the opposing team’s attackers when making offside judgments. An assistant referee covers only half of the touchline keeping in line with the second last defender. Should the referee ask an assistant attached to a club to line up with his own team’s defenders or with the opponent’s defenders?

Quote: ‘ Many times I have heard, “It’s easier to forget a wrong offside than an offside goal.” ’

For the reason given in the quote above, assistants attached to clubs are often asked to line up with their own defenders.

* Find out about the local refereeing course held in your area, and which one would be most suitable for you. Your local club will probably be the best place to start.

THE LAW
The referee first has to decide if the player is in an offside position. You must realize that a player cannot be in an offside position in his own half of the field of play.

* If a player is in an offside position, should he always be penalized?

The answer to the question above is important as a player should not always be penalized simply because he is in an offside position. For example, he may have received the ball directly from a goal kick, throw-in or corner kick.

Let’s look at the Law logically and think first about what an offside position is.

OFFSIDE POSITION
It is not an offense in itself to be in an offside position. There are certain criteria that must be met before it can be considered an offense.

A player is in an offside position if he is nearer to his opponent’s goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent. In other words, if the player is “behind the ball” in relation to his opponents’ goal, he is onside.

So, when a player takes the ball to the goal line and cuts it back for a colleague, the receiving player is onside as long as he stays “behind the ball” or level with the ball.

A player is not in an offside position if he is in his own half of the field of play or level with the second last opponent.

This is why assistant referees always try to keep in line with the second last defender. This is also the position that a referee strives to maintain when refereeing on his own.

Let’s suppose that the player is level with the last two opponents as the last two opponents may be in line with each other. The referee first has to consider the attacker’s position in relation to the ball, i.e. is the player in front of the ball? The referee then has to judge whether there are two opponents either level with the player or nearer to their own goal.

The referee must not forget to count the goalkeeper as one of the two defenders. However, if the goalkeeper has come out of his goal and is beyond the attacking player, there still needs to be two defenders level with, or nearer to, his goal than the attacker.

Having decided that a player is in an offside position, the referee has to decide if an offside offense has been committed. If so, he would stop play and award an indirect free kick at the place the offense occurred or to be taken anywhere in the defenders’ goal area if the offense occurred there.


OFFSIDE OFFENSE
A player is only penalized if he is in an offside position at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team.

Quote: “Note the Law does not say ‘when the player receives the ball’, as is sometimes believed, especially by supporters of the defending team!”

The most important point the referee must remember is to make the judgment an offside when the ball is last played by a teammate. If the player is in an offside position at this time, the referee will only stop play if the offending player is involved in active play. He would be guilty of this if:

* He got involved in the play by playing the ball.
* He got in the way of an opponent or obstructed the view of the goalkeeper.
* The ball came back to him from the goalkeeper or the goals and he gained an unfair advantage.

The IFAB has approved an interpretation of these three aspects of interfering with play:

How should we interpret ‘interfering with play’?
* Playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a teammate.

How should we interpret ‘interfering with an opponent’?
* Preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball, for example, by clearly obstructing the goalkeeper’s line of vision or movements.
* Making a gesture or movement while standing in the path of the ball to deceive or distract an opponent.

How should we interpret ‘gaining an advantage by being in that position’?
* Playing a ball that rebounds off a post or the crossbar having been in an offside position.
* Playing a ball that rebounds off an opponent having been in an offside position.

NO OFFENSE
Don’t forget that there is no offside offense if a player receives the ball directly from:
* A goal kick.
* A throw-in.
* A corner kick.

INFRINGEMENTS/SANCTIONS
The referee needs to know what action to take and how to restart the game if a player in an offside position is guilty of an offense.

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