[ayso45-refs] Perennial question: offsides rule, yet again

[Beau James]

Steve Wilhelm wrote:
>
> From my copy of "Laws of the Game 2007/2008", Law 11 - Offside:
>
> "A player in an offside position is only penalised if, at the moment 
> the ball touched 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*" (emphasis added by me)
>
> So an attacker must be moving or "be making a play" to be gaining an 
> advantage? Wouldn't having the ball moving towards him be an advantageous?

Nope.  In recent years that phrase has come to have an /extremely 
/narrow definition.  From the 2009-20010 FIFA LotG, page 102 
(Interpretations and Guidelines):

>     . "gaining an advantage by being in that position" means playing a
>     ball that rebounds to him off a goalpost or the crossbar having
>     been in an offside position or playing a ball that rebounds to him
>     off an opponent having been in an offside position


"Gaining an advantage" used to be open to too many variant 
interpretations by different referees, so the definition has been 
narrowed and made very explicit.

In general, the scope of the offside infraction has been narrowed over 
the years by the IFAB to encourage attacking soccer and reduce the set 
of scenarios in which the attacker is guilty of an offside infraction.

Beau

>
> - Steve W.
>
> On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 8:32 PM, Joseph Neil <jw_neil at yahoo.com 
> <mailto:jw_neil at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>
>     Agreed.   Good call.  Actually, unusually good. 
>
>     If the player made ANY move  that could be considered a play  then
>     offside should be called, but if he made no play and was not
>     obstructing the goal keeper or any defender then he was not offside. 
>
>     In general, a player can stand in an offside position, but is only
>     offside if he/she  makes a "play".  This includes obstruction (so
>     a player cannot simply stand in front of the goalkeeper for
>     example) and dummy runs, or almost any kind of movement except
>     back to his/her  own lines well out of the way.  
>
>     Note, a player will also be offside if he/she  runs back onside,
>     but THEN goes for the ball.  It is all about denying him/her  the
>     advantage of being in that offside position when the ball was kicked.
>
>     Joe
>
>
>
>
>
>
>     --- On *Wed, 11/4/09, Anna Silverman /<anna at silverman.org
>     <mailto:anna at silverman.org>>/* wrote:
>
>
>         From: Anna Silverman <anna at silverman.org
>         <mailto:anna at silverman.org>>
>         Subject: Re: [ayso45-refs] Perennial question: offsides rule,
>         yet again
>         To: "Daniel Edelson" <dredelson at gmail.com
>         <mailto:dredelson at gmail.com>>, ayso45-refs at ayso45.org
>         <mailto:ayso45-refs at ayso45.org>
>         Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 5:39 PM
>
>
>         No, it is not offside until and unless he makes a play for the
>         ball, or prevents the defending team from playing the ball.
>         Your no call was right on.
>         Anna
>
>         ----- Original Message ----- From: "Daniel Edelson"
>         <dredelson at gmail.com <http://mc/compose?to=dredelson@gmail.com>>
>         To: <ayso45-refs at ayso45.org
>         <http://mc/compose?to=ayso45-refs@ayso45.org>>
>         Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 3:47 PM
>         Subject: [ayso45-refs] Perennial question: offsides rule, yet
>         again
>
>
>         > (Tried sending this once but didn't see it. Trying again.
>         Apologies if this is a duplicate.)
>         >
>         > Last weekend I ref'd a U10B game. A parent became irate with
>         me for not calling an offside infraction. An attacker was in
>         an offside position and the ball rolled near them, well within
>         playable range. The attacker did not play the ball nor block
>         line of sight of a defender, so neither the AR nor I called
>         offsides. A parent griped that since the player in an offside
>         position could have played, we should have declared offsides.
>         >
>         > Ruling?
>         >
>         > Thanks.
>         >
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