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Players and management moaning at referee when he is following new offside law procedures.

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newref

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According to the new offside law, we don't blow the whistle for offside until the ball is touched by the attacking player. However, most teams and managers in grassroots football don't seem to have grasped this concept as they want you to blow immediately. I.e scenario - An attacker (who is offside) runs towards the ball but then just stands there not touching it allowing the defending team player to take the ball. As soon as the defending player touching the ball the attacking player is now allowed to tackle the defender. However the defending team side will moan at the fact that they should have had an IDFK rather than allowing the play to continue. What do you do guys do in such scenarios?
 
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First on the point of your post. Some payers and managers moan for everything. Same manager moans if you blow early and his own player is the one who is in an offside position but a team mate who is not offside runs in and plays the ball. Just get on with what you have to do for offside and deal with the moaning players or manager as you see fit. It all depends on how it is said. If may need a simple response, a warning, or a yellow card. I don't see if being a send off though.

On a side note, this is not actually a new part of offside law. Players in offside position never committed an offence untill they bacame 'active'
Another note, touching/playing the ball (iterfeering with play) is not the only thing that makes them active, interfering with an opponent, without touching the ball, also means the have committed an offence.

Just reading the rest of you post, that scenario may well be offside for interfering by an opponent. It's a you have to be there scenario to decide what it is.
 
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First on the point of your post. Some payers and managers moan for everything. Same manager moans if you blow early and his own player is the one who is in an offside position but a team mate who is not offside runs in and plays the ball. Just get on with what you have to do for offside and deal with the moaning players or manager as you see fit. It all depends on how it is said. If may need a simple response, a warning, or a yellow card. I don't see if being a send off though.

On a side note, this is not actually a new part of offside law. Players in offside position never committed an offence untill they bacame 'active'
Another note, touching/playing the ball (iterfeering with play) is not the only thing that makes them active, interfering with an opponent, without touching the ball, also means the have committed an offence.

Just reading the rest of you post, that scenario may well be offside for interfering by an opponent. It's a you have to be there scenario to decide what it is.
Yes, I understand the active part. However, what "interfering with an opponent" means is the problem. i.e An offside attacker runs towards the ball and the defender is no where in sight, the defending team expects the whistle to be blown for offside immediately even when the attacker has NOT played the ball or interfered or impeded the opponent from playing the ball in any way. A lot of the players in grassroots (including attackers) still believe that if your running towards the ball you're active. In actual fact you are not. Hence, if I apply the law it confuses everyone and moaning begins.
If I just blow the whistle when the attacker is in an offside position all the players accept it and I'll get through the game more smoothly, but the problem is wont help me as a referee to develop if I don't do it the correct way. It's almost like I'd have to teach the players the rule game by game so eventually hoping they get used to it.
 
There are a few scenarios where it is considered good practice to blow early - to prevent unnecessary attacker/goalkeeper collisions and to save an attacker chasing a long ball are two where I've been told to flag early by experienced referees. Essentially, if it's clear that the "offence" part of offside is definitely going to occur, you are allowed to be sensible and blow early. But if there's even a hint of doubt, it's always best to let it play out and see what actually happens.

Also, don't get thrown off by what you're seeing on TV. There is a lot of waiting on flags in the PL, but some of that will be VAR-related, which obviously don't apply at the levels we all work at!
 
There are a few scenarios where it is considered good practice to blow early - to prevent unnecessary attacker/goalkeeper collisions and to save an attacker chasing a long ball are two where I've been told to flag early by experienced referees. Essentially, if it's clear that the "offence" part of offside is definitely going to occur, you are allowed to be sensible and blow early. But if there's even a hint of doubt, it's always best to let it play out and see what actually happens.

Also, don't get thrown off by what you're seeing on TV. There is a lot of waiting on flags in the PL, but some of that will be VAR-related, which obviously don't apply at the levels we all work at!
Yes, you're right on tv they just delay the flag so VAR can brush it up if needed. However, I was watching a league cup game last week and there was no VAR in that game - the attacker was hunting down the ball on the wing and was offside. He looked at the linesman who kept his flag down and then when he finally touched it he raised his flag. It's seemed a bit silly to me tbh to delay the flag as he did when there is no VAR. Just a waste of time and energy for the attacker and even the defender who is chasing him down.
 
Yes, you're right on tv they just delay the flag so VAR can brush it up if needed. However, I was watching a league cup game last week and there was no VAR in that game - the attacker was hunting down the ball on the wing and was offside. He looked at the linesman who kept his flag down and then when he finally touched it he raised his flag. It's seemed a bit silly to me tbh to delay the flag as he did when there is no VAR. Just a waste of time and energy for the attacker and even the defender who is chasing him down.
Where you have two players in pretty close pursuit, there is always a chance of one player slipping, or even an off-the-ball foul occurring, meaning you would punish that instead as the offside offence would never have actually occurred. But yes, if the attacker is comfortably ahead, an early flag to save everyone's legs is generally accepted at the level I line at.
 
Where you have two players in pretty close pursuit, there is always a chance of one player slipping, or even an off-the-ball foul occurring, meaning you would punish that instead as the offside offence would never have actually occurred. But yes, if the attacker is comfortably ahead, an early flag to save everyone's legs is generally accepted at the level I line at.

I'm struggling to understand this particular part of the offside law.

From Law 11.2 Offside offence

interfering with an opponent by:
  • clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent
Is this when an attacker (IN AN OFFSIDE POSITION) dummies the ball or tried to head it in the air and just misses his head? And if so, in these cases it would be called offside right? What kind of other scenarios can you guys think of when this particular statement of the law would apply?
 
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The can apply to other scenarios but it was specifically for when a cross comes in and an attacker in offside position attempts to knock it in, the keeper goes to save the knock in, the ball makes no contact with anyone and goes in.
 
I'm struggling to understand this particular part of the offside law.

From Law 11.2 Offside offence
  • interfering with an opponent by:
    • clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent
I don't quite get it. Is this when an attacker dummies the ball? What kind of scenarios can you guys think of when this particular statement of the law would apply?
When this law was Brought in was because goals were being allowed where an attacker in an offside position was attempting to play the ball and the keeper would be interfered with by this as he is anticipating the attacker playing the ball and then can't take action to stop the ball going in the goal to the attackers actions. So if an attacker tries to play a ball that is close, and this impacts an opponent then he is committing an offence.. I would say dummying the ball can fall into this category, but remember it must impact an opponents ability to play the ball, merely dummying it is not necessarily an offence
 
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That certainly makes sense. However, what is the difference between that statement above and this statement which follows it in the law :-
  • making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball.
 
That certainly makes sense. However, what is the difference between that statement above and this statement which follows it in the law :-
  • making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball.
Think dummies the ball probably falls in this category actually again providing it impacts on an opponent.
 
Think dummies the ball probably falls in this category actually again providing it impacts on an opponent.
I think this one is more or less about PIOP gets in the way of a defender (no contact) who loses out on playing the ball because they had to go around the PIOP. Note this one doesn't have the requirement for the ball to be close but the other one has.
 
I think this one is more or less about PIOP gets in the way of a defender (no contact) who loses out on playing the ball because they had to go around the PIOP. Note this one doesn't have the requirement for the ball to be close but the other one has.
This certainly makes sense and does not fall into the other 3 bullet points mentioned in the laws on - interfering with an opponent.
 
I’ve had more ‘feedback’ on the ‘once the ball has been played by defender, offside is cleared’ law change. It’s caused more issues than the ‘active/not active’ in my experience.
 
I’ve had more ‘feedback’ on the ‘once the ball has been played by defender, offside is cleared’ law change. It’s caused more issues than the ‘active/not active’ in my experience.
That's the point my initial post was eluding to. Once the defender plays the ball (and the attacker is no longer offside), soon after the defenders team loses the ball and you'll get their team and management moaning on the sidelines.
 
Keep two things in mind, the ball does not have to be played by anyone (after the initial attacking touch/pass) for the offence to occur. The offence can occur before the defender plays the ball, saying the same thing really.

Offside used to be the most complex law closely followed by handball. After some good clarification on offside and some poor ones for handball, IMO handball is taken over now but there are still aspects of offside not fully clear and hotly debated.
 
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Keep two thing in mind, the ball does not have to be played by anyone (after the initial attacking touch/pass) for the offence to occured. The offence can occured before the defender plays the ball, saying the same thing really.

Offside used to be the most comes law closely followed by handball. After some good clarification on offside and some poor ones for handball, IMO handball is taken over now but there are still aspects of offside not fully clear and hotly debated.

Absolutely.

One particular scenario I had was:

-a long high ball played forward by red, bounces approx 25 yards away from goal.
-2 red players clearly offside, know it and walk back not interested in playing the ball or effecting play.
-blue defender runs back, plays bouncing ball, miscontrols it.
-ball practically falls to feet of previously uninterested red attacker who goes on to put it in the net.

Blue team complain red players was offside so it should be ruled out. I explain why they weren’t and that it was a perfectly good goal.

Blue players ask that I ignore THAT law because everyone would understand 😂😂.
 
Absolutely.

One particular scenario I had was:

-a long high ball played forward by red, bounces approx 25 yards away from goal.
-2 red players clearly offside, know it and walk back not interested in playing the ball or effecting play.
-blue defender runs back, plays bouncing ball, miscontrols it.
-ball practically falls to feet of previously uninterested red attacker who goes on to put it in the net.

Blue team complain red players was offside so it should be ruled out. I explain why they weren’t and that it was a perfectly good goal.

Blue players ask that I ignore THAT law because everyone would understand 😂😂.
Haha exactly. So to sum it up, I think overall, most times in grassroots its probably best to just blow. That way none of this happens. Those refereeing higher up L4 and above can abide by and follow the law and little things like this 100% because I'm sure the players and coaching staff in those teams higher up would be better educated about the laws and would not complain as much in such scenarios.
 
Haha exactly. So to sum it up, I think overall, most times in grassroots its probably best to just blow. That way none of this happens. Those refereeing higher up L4 and above can abide by and follow the law and little things like this 100% because I'm sure the players and coaching staff in those teams higher up would be better educated about the laws and would not complain as much in such scenarios.
A strong no from me. You are effectively saying you are only going to apply the laws that players know about and ignore the rest. this is not right on many levels but even from your personal point of view, this is going to get you in trouble more often than it will get you out of it.
 
I'm with you and I agree. At the higher level it would definitely matter but in these low divisions most teams don't give a toss and all they want is a good game. However, I do agree I guess we all as referees need to teach them the rules and game by game they'll get used to to it as I said in an earlier post. Requires a bit of patience, but that would be best.
 
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