Junior/Youth offside flag raised before penalty given

[Tino Best]

"This time the Burnley manager lamented the quirk of the offside rule which means the assistant has to wait until the ball is touched before raising a flag, and suggested it would be a brave official to do so if the referee has already pointed for a penalty." This was taken from Guardian article Arsene Wenger may face ban

This happened in my game at the weekend with appointed ARs. I went with my ARs decision. I am not sure whether I would have have gone with it with a CAR making the call.

 

[Ganajin]

I was in a game with CARs. Reds got a break with a long ball from the defence. A bunch of players (attackers and defenders) chased after it. Offside had been a strong possibility, but there was no flag ( I had been a little too far back to give anything). As an attacking player touched the ball just inside the area, she was tripped from behind. I whistled, and pointed the spot, no one argued. I then saw the CAR had her flag raised. As I ran over, I strongly suspected she was doing it just because I gave a PK. She immediately said: "the player fouled was offside. I knew straight away, but I only raised the flag when she actually touched the ball, because you told me that's how to do it when I lined for you last season"

What could I do? I commended her action, run back, cancelled the penalty (the girl already had the ball on the spot) and gave the offside. And surprisingly, the attackers accepted it.

 

[SLI39]

"Lamenting a quirk"--i.e. not liking the fact that it is possible to foul a player before he becomes active?

 

[AlexF]

It's possible to foul a player in offside position before they become active, but when the ball is clearly traveling to them, and they are fouled because of that, offside should be called for Interfering with the opponent.

This is the case in the Arsenal/Burnley game mentioned above. If the AR had felt/spotted/believed that the player fouled was in an offside position when the ball was played in, then that should have been given (with any possible sanctions from the foul still carrying, obviously).

 

[Ganajin]

It's possible to foul a player in offside position before they become active, but when the ball is clearly traveling to them, and they are fouled because of that, offside should be called for Interfering with the opponent.
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Remember that being in an offside position is not an offence. And just because the ball is coming straight towards a player, also does not constitute an offside offence. For all you know they may be about to run back and leave it. If a defender fouls an opponent in an offside position just because they MIGHT play the ball, that trumps anything else. Interfering with an opponent means:

1 obstructing the line of vision
2 challenging for the ball
3 clearly attempting to play the ball [when it impacts an opponent]
4 making an obvious action [when it impacts an opponents ability to play the ball]

Clearly, unless the PIOP is obstructing an opponents vision, they must DO something, a challenge, a play or make an action. If they just stand there, even with the ball coming straight at them, that is NOT enough by the Laws to constitute an offside offence and the foul takes precedence.

 

[CapnBloodbeard]

This happened in my game at the weekend with appointed ARs. I went with my ARs decision. I am not sure whether I would have have gone with it with a CAR making the call.

So what exactly happened? It's certainly possible to foul the PIOP before they become actively involved.