The Ref Stop

Offside Question

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Deleted member 3684

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Newbie so please go easy on me.

Just had a question that has bugged me ever since an AR appointment a few weeks back.

A player breaks the offside trap and is clean through on goal he then squares it to a team mate that taps home.

My question is can the player that taps the ball home be in any way offside? (Receiving the ball from a forward or backwards pass).

My thinking was that once the offside line has been beaten it doesn’t matter what happens from then on in as you have beaten the offside?
 
The Ref Stop
if he "squares" it, then he is behind the ball, so,onside. to be offside, he has to be ahead of the ball?
if he is however ahead of the ball, he can be offside.
 
The answer can be found in Law 11:

A player is in an offside position if:
• any part of the head, body or feet is in the opponents’ half (excluding the halfway line) and
• any part of the head, body or feet is nearer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent

The key is in the last bit for you, I think. Is the player nearer to the opponents' goal line than both the ball AND the second-last opponent? In your case, he's definitely ahead of the second-last opponent. The question is, then, is he ahead of the ball? That will be key to determining whether or not he is offside.

Hope this helps!
 
Ok so aslong as the man tapping home is behind the ball when he receives it then he’s fine? Even so there is no defenders in sight?
 
Thanks Ciley Myrus & Alex gr that has cleared that up for me, it’s a scenario I’ve not encountered before & received an earful from a defender that said I should have flagged.

I was right to keep the flag down as the player tapping home was behind the ball, it was just an unusual one for me and the added verbal from the defender really got me thinking.

In my case I forgot the part of offside that involves the man having to be behind the ball (99.9% of the time the man will be ahead of the ball when receiving a pass) i was stuck on the whole “player being ahead of the last defender when tapping home”

Once again thanks for clearing that up.
 
if you think about it, plenty of times, lets say, a winger, will dribble in, and imagine he is as good as on the goal line then passes it to a team mate who might well be at the pen spot but also well ahead of the 2nd last defender who lets imagine is at the 18.....
 
DCRef said:
Thanks Ciley Myrus & Alex gr that has cleared that up for me, it’s a scenario I’ve not encountered before & received an earful from a defender that said I should have flagged.

I was right to keep the flag down as the player tapping home was behind the ball, it was just an unusual one for me and the added verbal from the defender really got me thinking.

In my case I forgot the part of offside that involves the man having to be behind the ball (99.9% of the time the man will be ahead of the ball when receiving a pass) i was stuck on the whole “player being ahead of the last defender when tapping home”

Once again thanks for clearing that up.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure you've quite got it. In your OP you seemed to think that once a player has "beaten" offside, what happens next can't be offside.

Offside still applies to the next phase of play so if the player who beat the trap then passes to a teammate in an offside position (when the ball is played) it's offside.

(The change over the years is that, 30 years ago, if that latter player had been in an offside position during the first move, he would be given offside for "gaining an advantage" even if he was onside when it was passed to him. Nowadays "gaining an advantage" means something else.)

But players will not be ahead of the ball anything like 99.9% of the time when receiving a pass. In a breakaway like this the player without the ball must (and usually will) stay behind or level with the ball to avoid being offside. To judge offside, your job is to be level with the ball or the second last defender, whichever is nearer the goal line.
 
Despite roughly knowing the offside law, i also grappled with marrying the words up with understanding when first put in charge of the flag. Just get 'Both 2nd last defender And ball' in ur head and you're 80% there
 
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DCRef said:
Ok so aslong as the man tapping home is behind the ball when he receives it then he’s fine? Even so there is no defenders in sight?
Click to expand...

Almost ... The player tapping it in would have to be behind the ball when the pass was made, not when it was received
 
One little tip which seemed so obvious to experienced referees but helped me one starting off with offside, it makes no difference whatsoever the direction of the ball, its all about the position of the player.
 
Thanks totally got it now, i shamefully overlooked the part of the law that involves the player having to be behind the ball. I think when acting as AR im so infixed on staying inline with the last man (2nd last defending player) that this scenario threw me a bit & I forgot an important aspect of the offside law.
 
DCRef said:
Thanks totally got it now, i shamefully overlooked the part of the law that involves the player having to be behind the ball. I think when acting as AR im so infixed on staying inline with the last man (2nd last defending player) that this scenario threw me a bit & I forgot an important aspect of the offside law.
Click to expand...

Not "behind the ball" - he just can't be in front of the ball...
 
DCRef said:
I think when acting as AR im so infixed on staying inline with the last man (2nd last defending player)
Click to expand...
And right there, I think is the genesis of your problem. You should not be concentrating on keeping in line with just the second last defender. As stated in the "Practical Guidelines for Match Officials" section of the laws document:
The AR must be in line with the second-last defender or the ball if it is nearer to the goal line than the second-last defender.
Click to expand...
(Emphasis mine).
 
And being level with the ball means you should follow it toward the goal-line after a shot, to be able to judge if it goes over the goal-line (or from a pass if further out to make sure the GK doesn't use his hands outside the area to handle the ball).
 
Peter Grove said:
And right there, I think is the genesis of your problem. You should not be concentrating on keeping in line with just the second last defender. As stated in the "Practical Guidelines for Match Officials" section of the laws document:
(Emphasis mine).
Click to expand...

Thanks Peter for pointing that out, also something I overlooked.
 
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