GingerBeerMan
3-0
- Dec 29, 2011
- 8,260
or it's a goal kick
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Competition - Explain The Offside Rule.....
- Thread starter El Sid
- Start date
or it's a goal kick
Prince Monolulu
Everything in Moderation
Goldstone Rapper
Rediffusion PlayerofYear
No.
Tricky Dicky
New member
Nope. There is nothing to do with "outfield" players in the rules at all. It's the number of players regardless of their position.
wardy wonder land
Well-known member
- Dec 10, 2007
- 833
Hmmm. For the vast majority of situations, this is an excellent description, covering throw-ins, goal kicks, being in the oppo's half, being in front of the ball, etc.
I have a question as I genuinely don't know whether this would be offside or not.
Barnes goes and stands directly in front of their keeper in a clearly "offside" position. Koosh rolls the ball out to Ince who is clearly "onside". Ince goes on a mazy run, passing several defenders, runs with the ball past Barnes and the keeper and taps in. All the time Barnes has been dancing around in front of the keeper in an attempt to unsight him. Is he offside?
If so, your excellent description doesn't cover all the circumstances where a player would be offside.
Tricky Dicky
New member
If he really is impeding the keeper, it could be obstruction rather than offside, I guess.
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
The referees association have got a framed photo of Barnes as a wrong 'un, so the flag would go up as he is interfering with play.
The Large One
Who's Next?
If you see a picture of Glenn Murray when he played at Withdean, there's the perfect description.
Well, that's what I'd have thought too. Clearly, if Ince shoots before he's passed Barnes, Barnes is offside. But since he dribbles past Barnes then Barnes isn't, is he?
So why don't teams do exactly this; at least sometimes? There must be circumstances where positioning a player right in ront of the keeper in an "offside" position for an extended period of time would be a massive advantage for the attacking team, and yet I've never seen it done.
The law no longer specifies that the ball be played to the person interfering with play, so the ball wouldn't need to be passed to Barnes for him to be considered interfering with play, so I think it would be, and if the linesman didn't flag, I would presume the ref would blow for ungentlemanly conduct/unsporting behaviour (or be lambasted for not doing so, since it was such a clear case of unsporting behaviour).
I actually said "if you interfere with play when the ball is kicked by a team mate." not that the kicked ball had an intended target, so I would argue it is covered (Ince would have to kick the ball to run with it), but I think there are probably highly unlikely hypothetical situations that can be created that aren't specifically covered by a law, but would go against the spirit of the laws of the game and so would be covered by general things like unsporting behaviour laws.
Not any more:
Offside position
It is not an offence in itself to be in an offside position.
A player is in an offside position if:
A player is not in an offside position if:
• he is in his own half of the fi eld of play or
• he is level with the second-last opponent or
• he is level with the last two opponents
Offence
A player in an offside position is only penalised 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:
No offence
There is no offside offence if a player receives the ball directly from:
It is not an offence in itself to be in an offside position.
A player is in an offside position if:
• he is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the
second-last opponent
second-last opponent
A player is not in an offside position if:
• he is in his own half of the fi eld of play or
• he is level with the second-last opponent or
• he is level with the last two opponents
Offence
A player in an offside position is only penalised 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 an opponent or
• gaining an advantage by being in that position
• interfering with an opponent or
• gaining an advantage by being in that position
No offence
There is no offside offence if a player receives the ball directly from:
• a goal kick
• a throw-in
• a corner kick
• a throw-in
• a corner kick
It has happened at free kicks, with an opposing player standing in the keeper's eye-line. Technically it should be offside, but I don't know if it is always given partly because "interfering with play" is something the linesman has to judge and sometimes he might not have the best perspective to see how much of an obstruction the player is causing and how much is the keeper trying to save face for not stopping the goal.
And there's the answer to my question. When Ince goes past the last defender, and takes his next touch, Barnes must be in active play since he would be interfering (ahem) with an opponent. Barnes would therefore be offside.
In which case, Acker, I can't see anything wrong with your initial description.
Just noticed a flaw: free kicks.
So:
If, while the ball is in the field of play* and you are in your opponents half, ahead of the ball, and there are fewer than two opposing players between you and their goal-line, you are offside if you interfere with play when the ball is kicked by a team mate.
*For goal kicks, throw ins, and corners the ball has left the field and so you can't be ahead of something that isn't officially on the pitch, which is why you're not offside from those situations. With a free kick, while the play is dead, the ball has an official position - the place of the infringement.