Offside is a
lawThe Laws of the Game are the rules governing a game of association football. They are written and maintained by the International Football Association Board .-Current Laws of the Game:...
in association football which effectively limits how far forward attacking players may be when involved in play. Broadly, a player cannot gain an advantage by waiting for the ball near the opposing goal when there are fewer than two opponents between him and the goal.
Application
The application of the offside rule may be considered in three steps :
Offside position,
Offside offence and
Offside sanction.
Offside position
A player is in an
offside position if he is in his opponents' half of the field and is nearer to his opponents' goal line than the ball, and fewer than two of his opponents (which usually includes the goalkeeper) are in front of him. A player at equal distance from the goal line as the second to last opponent is not in an offside position.
In 2005 The
International Football Association BoardThe International Football Association Board is the body that determines the Laws of the Game of association football.-Operations:...
agreed a new decision in Law 11 that being "nearer to an opponent's goal line" meant that "any part of his head, body or feet is nearer to his opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent. The arms are not included in this definition." This is taken to mean that any part of the attacking player named in this Decision 2 has to be past the part of the second last defender closest to his goal line (excluding the arms) and past the part of the ball closest to the defenders' goal line.
In general, what this means is that either the attacking team should ensure the opposing team has at least two players (of which the opposition's goalkeeper is included) in front of the furthest forward player of the attacking team, or all players of the attacking team should be behind the ball such that it remains closer to the goal line than any of the players of the attacking team.
If the goalkeeper is ahead of the play, then the forward will have to be in line with or behind two defenders (unless the forward is in his own half).
There is currently some controversy over whether a defender who has left the field of play is counted as active for the purposes of determining whether or not an attacker is offside. The Laws of the Game simply say that the "player is in an offside position if he is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent", which is not definitive with regards to players being behind the goal line. The US Soccer Federation Advice to referees part 11.11 states that "A defender who leaves the field during the course of play and does not immediately return must still be considered in determining where the second to last defender is for the purpose of judging which attackers are in an offside position. Such a defender is considered to be on the touch line or goal line closest to his or her off-field position. A defender who leaves the field with the referee's permission (and who thus requires the referee's permission to return) is not included in determining offside position."
Offside offence
A player in an offside position is only committing an
offside offence if, in the opinion of the referee, he is involved in active play "at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team." A player is not committing an offside offence if the player receives the ball directly from a
throw-inA throw-in is a method of restarting play in a game of Association football.-Award:A throw-in is awarded to the opponents of the team that last touched the ball, when the ball leaves the field of play by wholly crossing a side touch line .-Procedure:The throw-in is taken from the point where it...
,
goal kick-Award:A goal kick is awarded to the defending team when the ball leaves the field of play by crossing the goal line without a goal having been scored, having been last touched by an attacking player.-Procedure:...
or
corner kickA corner kick is a method of restarting play in a game of association football. It was first devised in Sheffield under the Sheffield Rules in 1867...
, or if the player receiving the ball is level with or behind the player passing.
Therefore a player who runs from an onside position into an offside position
after the ball was touched or played by a team-mate is not penalised because a team-mate is no longer touching the ball.
Determining whether a player is in "active play" can be complex.
FIFAThe International Federation of Association Football, commonly known by its French acronym, FIFA , is the international governing body of association football. Its headquarters are in Zürich, Switzerland, and its current president is Sepp Blatter...
issued new guidelines for interpreting the offside law in 2003 and these were incorporated in law 11 in July 2005. The new wording seeks to more precisely define the three cases as follows:
- Interfering with play means touching the ball passed or touched by a teammate.
- Interfering with an opponent means preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent's line of vision or movements or maintaining a position which, in the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts an opponent in any way.
- Gaining an advantage by being in an offside position includes playing a ball that rebounds to the player off a post or crossbar or playing a ball that rebounds to the player off an opponent having been in an offside position.
In practice, a player in an offside position may be penalised before playing or touching the ball if, in the opinion of the referee, no other team-mate in an onside position has the opportunity to play the ball.
Controversy regarding offside decisions is normally caused by what movements a player in an offside position can make without being judged to be interfering with an opponent.
Bill ShanklyWilliam "Bill" Shankly, OBE was one of Britain's most successful and respected football managers. Shankly was also a fine player, whose career was interrupted by the Second World War...
made a famous quote: "If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be."
Offside sanction
The
sanction for an offside offence is an
indirect free kickAn indirect free kick is a method of restarting play in a game of association football. Unlike a direct free kick, a goal may not be scored directly from the kick. The law was derived from the Sheffield Rules that stated that no goal could be scored from a free kick...
to the opposing team, at the spot where the offence occurred. Most referees use their discretion and let play go on if the "offended" team already has the advantage or ball, in order not to slow down play with redundant free kicks that achieve the same purpose of giving the advantage or ball back to the "offended" team. This discretion should not be confused with the advantage clause, which can only be applied to Law 12. In essence, the referee who doesn't whistle offside must be judging that one of the elements of offside was not present.
Officiating
In enforcing this rule, the
refereeA referee presides over a game of association football. The referee has "full authority to enforce the Laws of the Game in connection with the match to which he has been appointed" , and the referee's decisions regarding facts connected with play are final, so far as the result of the game is...
depends greatly on an assistant referee, who generally keeps in line with the second to last defender in his relevant end (exact positioning techniques are more complex). An assistant referee signals that an offside offence has occurred by first raising his or her flag upright without movement, and then when acknowledged by the referee, by raising his or her flag in a manner that signifies the location of the offence:
- Flag pointed downwards: offence has occurred in the third of the pitch nearest to the assistant referee.
- Flag horizontal to the ground: offence has occurred in the middle third of the pitch.
- Flag pointed upwards: offence has occurred in the third of the pitch furthest from the assistant referee.
The assistant referees' task with regards to offside can be difficult, as they need to keep up with attacks and counter attacks, consider which players are in an offside position when the ball is played, and then determine whether the offside positioned players become involved in active play. The risk of false judgement is further increased by the foreshortening effect, which occurs when the distance between the attacking player and the assistant referee is significantly different from the distance to the defending player, and the assistant referee is not directly in line with the defender. The difficulty of offside officiating is often underestimated by spectators. Trying to judge if a player is level with an opponent at the moment the ball is kicked is not easy: if an attacker and a defender are running in opposite directions, they can be two metres apart in a tenth of a second.
History
Offside rules date back to codes of
footballFootball is the name of several similar team sports, all of which involve kicking a ball with the foot in an attempt to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer"...
developed at English public schools in the early nineteenth century. These offside rules were often much stricter than that in the modern game. In some of them, a player was "off his side" if he was standing in front of the ball. This was similar to the current
offsideIn rugby football, the offside rule prohibits players from gaining an advantage from being too far forward. The specifics of the rule differ between the two major codes.-Rugby union :...
law in
rugbyRugby football may refer to a number of sports through history descended from a common form of football developed in different areas of the United Kingdom. Today it refers to either rugby league or rugby union.- History :...
, which penalises any player between the ball and the opponent's goal. By contrast, the original
Sheffield RulesThe Sheffield Rules was a code of football devised and played in the English city of Sheffield between 1857 and 1877. They were devised by Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest for use by the newly founded Sheffield Football Club. The rules were subsequently adopted as the official rules of...
had no offside rule, and players known as "kick throughs" were positioned permanently near the opponents' goal.
In 1848, H.C. Malden held a meeting at his
Trinity College, CambridgeTrinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 160 Fellows ....
rooms, that addressed the problem. Representatives from
EtonEton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent boarding school for boys aged approx. 13 to 19. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
,
HarrowHarrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London. Harrow has educated boys since 1243 but was officially founded by John Lyon under a Royal Charter of Elizabeth I in 1572....
,
RugbyRugby School, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, is regarded as one of the UK's leading co-educational boarding schools and is one of the oldest public schools in England.-History:...
, Winchester and
ShrewsburyShrewsbury School is a public school located in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. It is one of the Clarendon Schools, the original nine great English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868, and is now a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. Shrewsbury School...
schools attended, each bringing their own set of rules. They sat down a little after 4pm and by five to midnight had drafted what is thought to be the first set of "Cambridge Rules". Malden is quoted as saying how "very satisfactorily they worked".
Unfortunately no copy of these 1848 rules exists today, but they are thought to have included laws governing throw-ins, goal-kicks, halfway line markings, re-starts, holding and pushing (which were outlawed) and offside. They even allowed for a string to be used as a cross bar.
A set of rules dated 1856 was discovered, over a hundred years later, in the library of
Shrewsbury SchoolShrewsbury School is a public school located in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. It is one of the Clarendon Schools, the original nine great English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868, and is now a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. Shrewsbury School...
. It is probably closely modelled on the Cambridge Rules and is thought to be the oldest set still in existence. Rule No. 9 required three defensive players to be ahead of an attacker who plays the ball. The rule states:
As football developed in the 1860s and 1870s, the offside law proved the biggest argument between the clubs. Sheffield got rid of the "kick throughs" by amending their laws so that one member of the defending side was required between a forward player and the opponent's goal; the Football Association also compromised slightly and adopted the Cambridge idea of three. Finally, Sheffield came into line with the F.A., and "three players" were the rule until 1925.
The change to "two players" rule led to an immediate increase in goal scoring. 4,700 goals were scored in 1,848 Football League games in
1924–25The 1924-25 season was the 50th season of competitive football in England.-Honours:-First Division:-Second Division:-Third Division North:-Third Division South:...
. This number rose to 6,373 goals (from the same number of games) in
1925–26The 1925–26 season was the 51st season of competitive football in England.-Overview:This marked the year that Huddersfield Town won the League 3 years running, making them the first team in English Football League history to do so.-Honours:...
.
Throughout the
1987–88 seasonThe 1987-88 season was the 108th season of competitive football in England.- First Division :Liverpool won the league title with a comfortable nine-point margin and just two defeats all season...
, the GM Vauxhall Conference was used to test an experimental rule change, whereby no attacker could be offside directly from a free-kick. This change was not deemed a success, as the attacking team could pack the penalty area for any free-kick (or even have several players stand in front of the opposition goalkeeper), and the rule change was not introduced at a higher level.
In 1990 the law was amended to consider an attacker to be onside if level with the second to last opponent. This change was part of a general movement by the game's authorities to make the rules more conducive to attacking football and help the game to flow more freely.
Offside trap
The offside trap is a defensive tactic designed to "trap" the attacking team into an offside position, pioneered by influential Argentinian coach
Osvaldo ZubeldíaOsvaldo Juan Zubeldía, was a football player and an influential Argentine coach.-Playing career:...
. When an attacking player is making a run up the field with a team-mate ready to kick the ball up to him, all the defenders (except the goalkeeper) will move up-field in a relatively straight line in order to put the attacker behind them just before the ball is kicked, hence putting the attacker in an offside position when the ball is kicked.
The use of the trap can be a risky strategy as all the defenders (except the goalkeeper) have to move up together in a relatively straight line, otherwise the attacking players will not be in an offside position as long as they are behind the goalkeeper and a defender that has not moved up; if the offside trap fails, the attacking players will have an almost clear run towards the goal. The 2003 rule changes have made it even more perilous as a tactic, since the definition of active play was made more stringent. Thus, teams attempting an offside trap are less likely to have an offside offence called when they have caught a player in an offside position if he is deemed by the referee to be not in active play.
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