No offside because of deliberate play. That’s when good communication between referee comes in. The assistant referee can usually see the offside position, but the referee also plays a role to see if it’s a deflection or deliberate play. An updated blog post with new video’s.
Offside situation in MLS
What I’d like you to do is watch the following situation and make a decision first. Because you’ll learn the most when you judge yourself first, I’d you to answer this question first before watching the clips
What is your call?
Your first thought probably is: offside! But what happens after the pass pictured below?
Explanation by Alan Black from PRO
Alan Black, PRO’s Head of Coaching, Education and Evaluation, shows FIFAs criteria for a deliberate play on the ball in a statement from PRO. (Great job that you publish this, PRO!) This helps you to interprete the action from the defender.
- A defender goes to play the ball – conscious action
- The defender has time and options
- The defender has control of his actions – not the outcome of the action
- There is distance and space between the pass and the defender playing the ball
Because of these criteria, their and my conclusion is that the goal should count. “Ultimately the goal by Jordan Hamilton was legitimately allowed to stand to give Toronto a 2-1 lead at this point in the game.”
Role of the referee
This is where the role of the referee is important. You’ve probably noticed the assistant referee raise his flag and put it down very quickly. It seems like the referee clearly communicates (via headset f.e.) that the ball comes from a defender and it’s a deliberate pass. In a previous blog post I wrote about the referee’s responsibility with offside.
Example from the Mexican league
First I’ll share the original video in a tweet to you. What is your call?
Make your decision quickly, as you have to in a normal game.
Polemica decisión que una vez mas nos perjudica. Lamentable el mal momento por el cual pasa el arbitraje del fútbol mexicano. @CArbitrosMX @AscensoMX pic.twitter.com/J252nM8lyW
— Pato Arana Schlettwein (@patoaranaschlet) 10 maart 2019
Ben from RefereeingBooks.eu shares this example with me on Twitter. The assistant referee sees the offside position, but does not see the deliberate pass. Ben explains: “Great situation to learn/teach offside law as it stands. Forward pass by attacker is played on by defender to co-attacker in offside position. Unfortunately, the assistant referee misses this and flags for offside, which is upheld by centre ref”
Incident in the Premier League
Below you’ll find a longer case study based on a clip where there’s no offside because of deliberate play.
That’s also how Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) judges the penalty and offside incident in the game between Liverpool and Tottenham. Jon Moss gets it right, but what can you learn from this match incident? A case study.
PGMOL statement supports referee Moss
“Jon Moss was in a good position to see that a Liverpool player deliberately played the ball before it fell to Harry Kane in the penalty area”, is mentioned in a statement by the PGMOL, cited by lots of newspapers. “He then correctly judged that Kane was fouled by Lorius [sic] Karius. However, given the speed of the attack he was uncertain of the identity of the Liverpool player who kicked the ball.”
Watch the situation
The deliberate pass is not the most clear hear, but this video got something I want to show you. It’s Jon Moss talking with his assistant referee Eddie Smart.
PGMOL continues their statement. “Eddie Smart, having identified that Kane was in an offside position, correctly sought clarification on whether Dejan Lovren had deliberately played the ball.”
In the video you’ll see some confusion, because Moss is not sure which Liverpool player touches the ball. “Moss knew a Liverpool player had touched the ball, but not that it was Lovren.” Moss asks 4th official Martin Atkinson what he sees on tv, but he can’t watch tv footage. PGMLOL ensures Atkinson has not acted as a VAR. He also gives no advice about what to do.
Difficult series of decisions
After the talk with Eddie Smart, Moss is sure. There is no offside because of deliberate play by a Liverpool defender. That is why he awarded a penalty. “In real time this was a difficult series of decisions which the match officials judged correctly in recognising that Kane was not offside, as Lovren had deliberately played the ball, and he was fouled for the award of the penalty kick”, says PGMOL.
And this is crucial for your definition as referee:
“The interpretation of “deliberately” kicking a ball considers whether a player has intentionally tried to kick a ball. It does not consider whether the ball ends up where a player may have wanted to kick it.”
No deliberate save
This was clearly a miskick, but the ball ends somewhere else. The Laws of the Game add something. “A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent who deliberately plays the ball (except from a deliberate save by any opponent) is not considered to have gained an advantage.”
The defender is a few metres outside of his own penalty area. The LOTG only talk about a “save” when “a player stops, or attempts to stop, a ball which is going into or very close to the goal with any part of the body except the hands/arms.”
A defender outside the box is not very close to the goal, so this is not a deliberate save. Correct call by Jon Moss.
Also wrote another story about offside and the responsibility of the referee.
