Soccer Rules – Offside

The purpose of the offside rule

The purpose of the offside rule is the same in football as it is in hockey: to prevent a player camping in front of the other team’s goal from “picking the cherry.” Without the offside rule, soccer would be a great game of ping pong, full of long kicks and alternating crazy runs from one end of the field to the other. By preventing any “offside” players from participating in the game, the rule places greater importance on dribbling and passing, rather than long kicks. This promotes teamwork, which, in turn, encourages quick switching from one side of the field to the other and compresses the action into a smaller area of ​​the field, usually about 30 or 40 meters long. The end result is that all players stay closer to the action and everyone has a better chance to get in on the game.

The offside rule:

offside position

A player in an offside position shall only be penalized if, at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee, involved in active play by interfering with play or interfering with a opponent. , or gaining an advantage by being in that position.

Law 11 states that a player is in an “offside position” whenever “he is closer to his opponent’s goal than the ball and the penultimate opponent”, unless “he is in his own half of the field of game”. Put more simply:

— No one is “offside” in their own half of the field.

— No one is “offside” if even with or behind the ball.

— No one is “offside” if he is on par with or behind two or more opponents.

In addition, there are three important exceptions to the offside rule. Anyone receiving a ball directly from a throw-in, corner kick or goal kick cannot be ‘offside’. So if Sally receives the ball directly from her team-mate’s throw-in, it doesn’t matter if she is in an offside position. The fact that it was a throw-in means that the play was not offside. However, if she passes the ball to Jane, who is even further away than Sally, Jane may be offside, since she received the ball from Sally, rather than the throw-in. The same goes for corner kicks and goal kicks. If the ball comes directly from the restart, the rally cannot be offside; but once the first player receives the ball, the “offside” rule comes into play again.

“Involved in active play”

Contrary to some popular misconceptions, it does not violate the rules simply for a player to be in an offside position. The violation occurs only when an “offside” player becomes involved in the play. So the referee, or assistant referee on the sidelines, who allows play to continue, even if everyone can see a player beyond the offside line, is probably not missing a thing. Rather, they are applying the rule correctly, by allowing play to continue until the player in the “offside position” becomes “offside” by becoming involved in play.

There are three, and only three, situations where someone in an offside position is penalized for being “offside”. All of them, however, require participating in the game from an offside position or, depending on the wording of the rule, “participate in active play” in one of three ways:

— interfere with the game

— Interfering with an opponent, or

— Gaining an advantage by being in an offside position.

The simplest example of “offside” is when an offside player receives a pass from a teammate. In this case, he is directly “interfering with play” because he has the ball. Other examples of the same principle apply this same logic, but seek to avoid some steps to the players, or some heart attacks to the coaches and fans. Therefore, if one or more attackers are caught offside and run to play the ball, the play is “offside”. On the other hand, if a player who is offside withdraws from the game, for example by pulling up to let a teammate who is onside pick up the ball, an alert referee will allow play to continue. And if the ball goes directly to the goalkeeper, the referees will usually let the players continue playing.

While it is not an offense to be in an offside position, a player who never touches the ball can affect play in such a way that he or she is penalized for being offside. The offside player who runs between an opponent and the ball, for example, or one who blocks the goalkeeper from a shot, or interferes with the goalkeeper’s ability to jump or collect the ball, violates the offside rule by participating in the play. But this type of participation does not come from touching the ball. Rather, it comes from interfering with an opponent’s opportunity to play the ball. In this case, once the assistant referee sees the turnout, the appropriate response is to raise the flag. But, if the offside player stops, moves to one side, or clearly indicates that he or she is withdrawing from active play at the time, the alert referee will simply allow play to continue.

Among the hardest things to spot, whether as a spectator or an official, is the player who exploits an offside position to gain an unfair advantage. However, this does not mean that the player is “gaining an advantage” by avoiding running more on a hot day. Instead, it means the player is taking advantage of his positioning to exploit a lucky deflection or defensive error. Therefore, if an offside player is standing by the goal when his teammate takes a shot, but does not interfere with play or inhibit the goalkeeper’s opportunity to make the save, then he is not offside. .. and the The referees will count the goal. But if the ball rebounds, either off the goalkeeper or the goal post, and the offside player hits the rebound, the play is offside and the goal does not count, because the player is now gaining an advantage from the offside position.

“At the moment the ball touches, or is played, by a teammate…”

The offside rule is the source of more controversy than any other rule in football. In part, this is because there are at least two critical moments of judgment in every offside or no-call call. The second of them, the moment of participation, is usually easy to see: that is where the ball usually lands and the players are playing, and that is where everyone is looking. But the first “moment of truth” is often far from everyone’s attention, because what determines the “offside position” is the relative position of each player at the moment the ball is hit.

Players touch the ball a lot during a soccer game, often in quick succession. And being soccer a fluid game, in a good team each player is in constant movement. This means that the first moment of judgment (determining whether any player is in an offside position) is constantly changing, and the relative position of the players will often be very different from moment to moment. However, the referees have to keep everything in order, and take a heartbeat or less to take a mental snapshot of the position of the players in a frozen moment in time, the moment when a member of a team plays the match. ball, in order to be able to judge whether an offside member of that team subsequently moves to play the ball, interferes with an opponent or gains an advantage by being offside. From the referee’s perspective, the game is an endless series of these snapshots, because each new touch of the ball redetermines the offside line… and the referee often has less than a heartbeat to make the decision.

The important thing to remember is that the timing of judging “offside position” is different from the timing of participation. And this is true in any direction the players are moving. An offside player who comes back onside to receive the ball remains offside; to avoid the call, he cannot participate until another teammate touches the ball, or his opponents manage to pick it up. On the other hand, a player who is in play will stay in play, no matter how far he runs to retrieve it, and no matter where the other team’s players move in the meantime. So if Steve is onside when Tom kicks the ball forward, it doesn’t matter if he is twenty yards behind the defense when he picks up the ball. The play will be onside … because he was onside at the time his teammate passed the ball. And if Steve is onside…but Frank is offside…then an alert umpire will wait to see which one of them moves after the ball, because if Frank walks out of the play and lets Steve pick it up, then play may continue because there is no offside violation.

Football and offside referees

The offside rule has been a part of football for a long time, generating discussion and controversy since its inception. But its purpose is simple: to prevent “cherry picking.” Since it is an important part of the game, the referees will enforce the rule to the best of their ability. But when they call a play out of play, or let the play continue, because they didn’t see a foul, they’re not doing it out of spite or to hurt one team or the other. Rather, they do so regardless of which team it harms or benefits, simply because the rules require it.