Question Number: 22916

Law 11 - Offside 3/8/2010

RE: State 06 Adult

Joe Couture of Sugarland, Texas USA asks...

An attacking player, bringing the ball up the field, attempts to pass the ball to his teammate, B. Player B is in an offside position. However, before the pass reaches player B, the ball is handled (handling) by a a defender. The deflection ends up going directly to player B, who was in an offside position at the time of the intended pass. Is the play stopped and offside penalty assessed or should the play be stopped for handling?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Referee Couture
It is only offside if the player in the offside position interfered with play or interfered with an opponent. It is not an offence to be in an offside position. From the description it would appear that neither happened so the correct decision is a direct free kick for deliberately handling the ball.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Even though B was in an offside position prior to the handling, the offside offense had not yet been completed by the player interfering with play. Call the handling as that happened first.

As a corollary, if you happen to play advantage and call out Play On (not knowing B was in an offside position) you would call back the play to the foul when you see your AR's flag. There was no advantage to be had because of the offside position, so it was not realized.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

The USSF recently addressed this issue noting that since the offside infringement does not occur until active involvement, the referee should call the foul (deliberate handling of the ball).

At one time, the notion was that the offside infringement occurred the moment the ball was kicked and, thus, it occurred before the deliberate handling. That is no longer the correct approach to such intervening fouls.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 22937