At monthly meeting two interesting issues were debated: 1. Where is ball placed after O/S call? Technical answer is where offense occured which is where offender was located on pitch when O/S position became O/S violation. Instructor says at all levels it gets placed where AR is which is where offender went into O/S position or where 2nd to last is when position becomes offense. Agree? 2. Ball is lofted high from midfield by A1 and A2 is in OSP at the kick. By the time the ball gets back to ground level the players have faded downfield after the ball and A2 is no longer in OSP and the ball is collected by the defense. Normally if the defense clears the ball or obtains possession we don't flag OS in order to keep the game flowing. But in this situation flagging OS would give an IFK 20 yards upfield. Do you flag making the decision that the extra yardage is more valuable than possession or clear, or do you not flag in the interest of continuity since the attackers gained no advantage from the OS? Jim
Jim, you forgot an important part of offside. How was the offside player involved in the play if the ball were collected by the defense. If he affected how the defense was able to play the ball, flag it. If not, let play continue. As an AR, you'd like to stay where the offside occurred, but may decide you may need to move, as the need to follow the play and be ready for your next opportunity for action overcomes the likelyhood of a need to flag the recent offside position. The offside call is much easier to sell to the players and CR if you haven't moved since the violation occurred.
That's a good question. For the life of me, I don't know where in the LOTG the answer is. Maybe only refs can read that part. That much is quite clear. What isn't clear is where that is. That's one possibility That's another possibility, one that's inconsistent with the first possibility. Actually, the second one is two possibilities: 1. where the defender went into offside position 2. where 2nd to last is when position becomes offense. ...unless the instructor was implying that those two things are mutually exclusive. I'm not sure they are. If they aren't, then there are 3 possibilities. (and the instructor only added to the confusion) Is there a place in the LOTG where it says where the offside infraction occurs? If the attacker is way downfield and the second to last defender is near midfield, then saying that the infration occurs near midfield is not entirly logical (assuming that a player commits the infraction), since the player who commits the infraction wasn't anywhere near midfield. How could he commit an infraction where he wasn't? It's a puzzlement.
Thanks for the reply but I really didn't forget. the attacker can be involved in play without winning the ball. On a can of corn into the area of the 18 a player who was OSP at the time of the kick may well try to collect the ball and lose it to a defender who clears or dribbles out. He has certainly been involved in the play and has made the transition to OS violation unless the AR has strapped his flag to his leg with duct tape in order to refrain from raising his flag until he knows for sure if the defense is going to clear. At the meeting it was a point of great emphasis to wait to raise the flag until you are sure because lots of things can happen - even with a round ball. Thanks for the ideas and response. Jim
Law 6 states that the AR should signal WHEN O/S can be punished. The WHERE goes with his WHEN. If the referee determines O/S, then the WHERE goes with his WHEN. If the O/S player has infringed the law, especially by being close enough to take advantage of any error that a defender might make, there are two possibilities that can occur that give a very unfair result if the flag does not go up immediately. First, an intermediate event can occur, e.g., a defender handles the ball. "Handball" will get punished when O/S (the first infringement) should have been punished. Second, if the defender makes an error (such as controlling the ball and THEN slipping and falling down), it leaves the O/S player free to take advantage.