Offside

In football, an offside is one of the codified rules mentioned in the Laws of the Game concerning the sport. It involves the location of defensive players to offensive players while a teammate is passing the ball to an offensive player. This is considered one of the most causes of stopping a play as a result of the violation of the player. It is a common infraction.

As stated in Law 11 of the Laws of the Game, a player that is on the offside position is not considered an offense. Determining whether the player happened to be on that position is not that hard to spot, particularly if you understand how the rule works. According to the laws of FIFA, a player is considered in an offside position if they are close to the goal line of their opponent than both the ball and the second-last opponent. On the other hand, a player is considered not in an offside position if they are situated on their field of play or is at the level of the second last opponent.

If the player is in an offside position, the moment that a teammate touches the ball, only that teammate will be penalized. The reason for the penalty is due to the teammate’s interference during an active play of the player by touching the ball that is being passed. Another cause for the penalty is if the teammate prevents the opponent from playing by obstruction the line of vision of the other player, hindering them from being able to play the ball. However, if the player receives the ball directly from a goal kick, throw-in, or a corner kick, then it is not considered an offside offense.

The most common award given by a referee when an offside offense occurs is an indirect free kick, which will be in the area where the offense took place. The same reward will also be given if the offense took place in the player’s half of the field of play. A player can also be sanctioned if the defending player leaves the field of play without asking the permission of the referee. The defending player will be cautioned by the referee when the ball is next out of play.

In enforcing this rule, the referee depends greatly on an assistant referee, who generally keeps in line with the second-to-last opponent, the ball, or the halfway line, whichever is closer to the goal line of their relevant end. An assistant referee signals for an offside offence by first raising their flag to a vertical position and then, if the referee stops play, by partly lowering their flag to an angle that signifies the location of the offence:

• Flag pointed at a 45-degree angle downwards: offence has occurred in the third of the pitch nearest to the assistant referee;
• Flag parallel to the ground: offence has occurred in the middle third of the pitch;
• Flag pointed at a 45-degree angle upwards: offence has occurred in the third of the pitch furthest from the assistant referee.

The assistant referees’ task with regard 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 and when the offside-positioned players become involved in active play. The risk of false judgment 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 less than a second.

Some researchers believe that offside officiating errors are “optically inevitable”. It has been argued that human beings and technological media are incapable of accurately detecting an offside position quickly enough to make a timely decision. Sometimes it simply is not possible to keep all the relevant players in the visual field at once. There have been some proposals for automated enforcement of the offside rule.