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Question Number: 19075

Law 11 - Offside 5/13/2008

RE: Rec Under 8

Chris Cook of SPRINGFIELD, NJ USA asks...

At my son's last U9 game, an offensive player was in an offsides position. The ball was played to him, but a defender touched it before it reached the offsides player. The defender never controlled the ball. He made a play for it, and touched it, but it squirted through his legs. The offsides offensive player then received the ball. The ref then called offsides. My question: doesn't the fact that the defender touched the ball before the offsides player received it remove the offsides penalty? Or does the defender have to actively control the ball (not merely touch it)? Clearly, if the defender had successfully intercepted the pass and then passed back to the goalie, only to have his pass stolen by the offsides offensive player, it would not have been an offsides penalty. Thanks guys.

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

The referee got this one right. You hit it on the head when asking about "does the defender have to actually control the ball?" Well, they do, and in this case they didn't. Offside is correct.

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Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Nope coach, you are incorrect. Offside does NOT reset upon the mere touch of the ball by an OPPONENT. The opponent has to control the ball. Offside resets every time a teammate touches the ball but the opponent actually has to control the ball for this to occur

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Offside Question?

Offside Explained by Chuck Fleischer, Editor AskTheRef

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