I was CR in this U17 Rec tournament semi-final a week or so back and ran into this situation. Team A wins the ball at midfield and flights a long ball to an attacker in an offside position. A's attacker realizing he is offside clearly steps backwards out of the play to indicate that he will not pursue the ball so neither my AR nor I initially indicate offside. However, as A's teammate runs out of midfield onto the ball and puts it into the back of the net, the original A striker is backing out of the play right through the path of B's last defender. There was no contact made but B definitely lost two or three steps while he adjusted his run to avoid A's striker. I whistled and brought the play back to an IFK to team B. Then I had to explain myself to the players and team A's coach. I guess it doesn't really matter since they were equal offenses but I chose to penalize obstruction rather than offside. But I can see how you can make the argument that A definitely gained advantage from being in the offside position (allowing him to run interference). Any thoughts, just to satisfy my curious mind.
If you review Law 11, you will note that it is an offense if the player in an offside postion when the ball was last played by a teammate, interferes with an opponent. This is invovlement. This would be the correct call, even if the player was attempting to demonstrate non-involvement. It would not be "obstruction" since we no longer apply that term, and a stretch to call it impeding the progress of an opponnet, unless the opponent were impeded in their attemt to play the ball, but if neither were in playing distance, this would be a hard sell, and most likely trifling. From what you describe it was a straight forward offside infraction. Raise the flag, blow the whistle, restart with IFK at the spot where the attacker was when the ball was when last played by the teammate. Sherman
just a small wrench. ) Spot on Whip, just a minor point what if the attacker was already off the field of play at the time the ball was played (Last touched by a teammate)? From where he renters to involve himself?
Re: just a small wrench. ) Griz, If the player is off the field in the normal course of play, they would still be considered as being on the field if they then became involved and you would whistle an offiside infraction. If, they were off the field, to show non-involvement, and then re-entered before the next phase reset the offside, it would be misconduct. You would still punish the offside, but before the restart, you would also need to deal with the misconduct. A few words at a minimum, a caution if necessary. Sherman
Yeah, but I intentionally didn't use that word in my post for fear of opening a whole new can of worms