Question:
In a recent game, a ball was passed over forward to an offensive player who was clearly onside at the time the ball was passed, but ran to an offside position to play the ball. The pass was intercepted by a defensive player who attempted to pass it back to mid field. In doing so, he struck the back of another defensive player and the ball bounced back to the offensive player, who was now clearly in an offside position. The assistant referee called an offside call, clearly giving advantage to the team who had committed an unforced error. Was this the intent of decision 2 shown in the 2007/2008 laws of the game pamphlet?
USSF answer (March 31, 2008):
The assistant referee made a mistake, as it makes no difference where the player was when the opposing player struck the ball. The moment the referee (and the AR) must be interested in is where the player was when his/her teammate struck the ball. In this case the player did not infringe any portion of Law 11 and is thus not offside.
