The Ref Stop

Positioning of Assistant Referees for Offside

CapeTownRef

CapeTownRef

Member
As everyone who has done it can testify, running the line is not as straightforward as it appears. In the numerous games where I've been an Assistant Referee my instruction from the referee invariably would be to track the last defender. This seems logical as it is easier (not easy) to move with the player as the ball travels a hell of a lot faster. One of my refereeing colleagues here in Cape Town says I am wrong and that you follow the ball. The example he gave was the defending team (in open play) have their players in a line on the edge of the penalty area. The attacking team player in possession slides a pass along the side of the penalty are to a teammate in an onside position and then the attacker receiving the pass drives forward and the assistant referee should then be in line with the ball. In the main, players (and attackers in particular) can move a lot faster than match officials and I feel there is no way I can keep up in line with the ball when a player is in full flight with the ball in front of him. Any thoughts?
 
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You must be in line with second last defender unless the ball is closer to the defender's goal line, in which case you must be in line with the ball.

CapeTownRef said:
In the main, players (and attackers in particular) can move a lot faster than match officials and I feel there is no way I can keep up in line with the ball when a player is in full flight with the ball in front of him. Any thoughts?
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Yeap. reading play, anticipation and quick reactions can help but in the main at lower levels, use your experience for a bit of guess work to make up for the shortfall in speed when you are not in line. At higher levels... well you wont make it there if you can't keep up with players.
 
CapeTownRef said:
One of my refereeing colleagues here in Cape Town says I am wrong and that you follow the ball.
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You both have correct points. On my higher level assistant matches, this is always discussed in the pre-match discussion. Track the second to last defender (to be picky you've mentioned tracking the last defender which is technically incorrect ;)) unless the ball has been played or ends up behind that defender, that is when you track the ball.

Perfect scenario of when you want to track the ball is an attacker launches the ball towards the oppositions goal, by keeping up with the ball you'll be able to still signal if the ball goes out of play or goes over the goal line. If you're stood there tracking the second to last defender, you're going to be looking silly when they look at you to signal whether the ball is in/out 30 yards away.
 
The AR is supposed to be at the offside line--halfway line, 2LD, or the ball, whichever is nearer to the goal. In pregame, we never bother talking about the halfway line. And when play is in the ARs half, 95% of the time the OS line is the 2LD. So many refs make that cursory remark of staying with the 2LD, rather than getting into more detail. But I'm sure if you asked any of them, they would agree that once the ball is past the 2LD, that is where you need to be.
 
Referee117 said:
(to be picky you've mentioned tracking the last defender which is technically incorrect ;)) unless the ball has been played or ends up behind that defender, that is when you track the ball.
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To be picky you have mentioned behind the defender which is technically incorrect if the defender is facing his own goal line :p

socal lurker said:
we never bother talking about the halfway line.
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I have never read this anywhere but it is a basic and commonly accepted convention. It's because a player can not be in an offside position when in his own half and until a few years ago the FK for offside was taken from where the player was when the ball was last touched by a team mate. The latter part of that assertion is no longer true and the FK is from where the player commits the offside offence (becomes active) which means the FK can be taken from a player's own half. I wonder the latter part of that assertions should mean deviating from the common convention and 'allowing' the AR to 'encroach' into the opposite half. I don't see anything wrong with it. That would also answer the question of "how/where do I flag an offside when the FK is to be taken in the player's own half?"
 
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one said:
That would also answer the question of "how/where do I flag an offside when the FK is to be taken in the player's own half?"
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Well, you are always going to flag from where you are when the offense occurs, which may or may not be in line with where the FK is to be taken. The couple of times I have had the OS-FK-in-the-other-half, I have moved to where the kick would be and made the over-and-back hand gesture to the R.
 
one said:
That would also answer the question of "how/where do I flag an offside when the FK is to be taken in the player's own half?"
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There's nothing on this in the Laws of the Game about this (an oversight IMHO, I think they should have included something in the "Practical Guidelines for Match Officials" section) but shortly after the change was introduced, the FA, EFL, Premier League and PGMOL issued a joint communique about this that I think represents a practical and logical way to handle it. It read (in part) as follows:
The AR should raise the flag to indicate the offside offence. It is not required to retain the flag across the field of play to indicate 'Far', 'Middle' or 'Near' as this may lead to confusion.

ARs should not cross the half-way line when signalling or communicating an offside offence.

It may helpful for the AR to use their left hand in a 'right to left' gesture/arc signal to help communicate that the player has moved back from an offside position.

Referees should take control of positioning of the restart as they would on any other FK situation in their half of the field of play.
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Peter Grove said:
There's nothing on this in the Laws of the Game about this (an oversight IMHO, I think they should have included something in the "Practical Guidelines for Match Officials" section) but shortly after the change was introduced, the FA, EFL, Premier League and PGMOL issued a joint communique about this that I think represents a practical and logical way to handle it. It read (in part) as follows:
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IMHO that is a perfect instruction for those with headsets. For those of without them, and who may have a ref with no idea what was just called, I don’t think it is inappropriate for the AR to cross the halfway line if it helps communicate with the R. I think we have to be flexible in this unusual case.
 
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Even with comms, I don't see any reason why the "ARs should not cross the half-way line when signalling or communicating an offside offence".

Reminds me of the five monkeys in cage experiment I posted a while ago. There no longer exists a reason why we should't go for the banana's :)
 
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