Maybe this should be in the New Refs forum but it arose in a game today. I’m in my first season refereeing, and so far so good, I’m enjoying it. Youth level, U-12s to U-16s.
I have a question about offsides. In only the second game I reffed back in August, I was told off by an 11-year old for blowing for offside because he told me his teammate hadn’t been active and hadn’t touched the ball. As the lad who was offside was chasing with the centre-half hot on his heels with nobody else close I thought the whistle was justified.
However, since then I have tended to delay blowing the whistle until the player in an offside position has touched the ball or made a challenge on a defender. In some cases that has meant ignoring a chorus of “Offside Ref!” shouts from the sideline until the player has definitely become ’active’.
Then I had an incident today where a player in an offside position was chasing a through ball and delayed the whistle, but the defending team’s goalie was really quick off his line and the two crashed into each other. The keeper came off worse and needed a bit of treatment. If I’d done it the old way and blown immediately this would have been avoided.
So what would you advise? When it’s clear a player is offside and about to get involved or become active, is it better to whistle and avoid potential clashes like this, or play it strictly by the book?
I have a question about offsides. In only the second game I reffed back in August, I was told off by an 11-year old for blowing for offside because he told me his teammate hadn’t been active and hadn’t touched the ball. As the lad who was offside was chasing with the centre-half hot on his heels with nobody else close I thought the whistle was justified.
However, since then I have tended to delay blowing the whistle until the player in an offside position has touched the ball or made a challenge on a defender. In some cases that has meant ignoring a chorus of “Offside Ref!” shouts from the sideline until the player has definitely become ’active’.
Then I had an incident today where a player in an offside position was chasing a through ball and delayed the whistle, but the defending team’s goalie was really quick off his line and the two crashed into each other. The keeper came off worse and needed a bit of treatment. If I’d done it the old way and blown immediately this would have been avoided.
So what would you advise? When it’s clear a player is offside and about to get involved or become active, is it better to whistle and avoid potential clashes like this, or play it strictly by the book?
