Surfref
PREMIER
And, the incorrect Offside calls are still happening. Week two of League season and I am working with another referee who does not follow the 2018/2019 LOTG Law 11 or follow what I tell them in the pre-game. The AR's screw ups actually taught him a couple lessons, but got me (Center) yelled at by both coaches. The AR did not listen when I told him to, "wait and see if the attacker in an offside position actually plays the ball or interferes with play." First half with score 0-0, attacking third of the field, the ball gets passed through the defense to the blue player in an offside position who starts to run after the ball but stops and changes direction away from the ball about 4-5 yards from the ball when the ball was at the top of the penalty area, the white defenders stop when they see the AR raise his flag, I yell at him "no offside lower the flag", another blue attacker who was in an onside position comes in and gets a shot off that misses wide. All of this happened within about 3 seconds. AR should not have raised his flag until the offside blue attacker played the ball. Blue coach yells at me that his team practices that play and the AR threw off the timing and distracted his players. White coach is yelling that I should have called the offside because the AR raised the flag. I get the game going quickly and the coaches calm down.
Same AR in the same game during the second half. Ball gets played high and long over the top toward the blue keeper. A white player in an offside position is running after the ball toward the keeper but from my view the keeper was going to easily get to the ball first. With the ball 20 yards in front of the white player and 10 yards from the keeper, the AR raises his flag for offside. I ignore him and wait to see what will happen. Keeper kicks the ball but shanks it out of play. I tell my AR to lower the flag because the white player never played the ball. After the game the AR tells me he raised the flag because he thought the white attacker and blue keeper might collide, so he raised the flag early. I informed him that player safety is important but we must follow the LOTG and there is no guidance in the LOTG that tells us to call a foul or infraction because of what we think might happen. I asked him if he would stop play if there was a ball in the middle of the field with two players from opposing teams running toward each other to get the ball. He said "no." My response was, "so, why would you raise the flag in a similar situation when an attacker in an offside position who has not played the ball but is running at the keeper who is moving toward the ball?" His answer, "I get it, I should leave the flag down until the offside attacker either interferes or plays the ball." Me, "Exactly." Lesson learned and now we will have one less referee misapplying the LOTG.
Same AR in the same game during the second half. Ball gets played high and long over the top toward the blue keeper. A white player in an offside position is running after the ball toward the keeper but from my view the keeper was going to easily get to the ball first. With the ball 20 yards in front of the white player and 10 yards from the keeper, the AR raises his flag for offside. I ignore him and wait to see what will happen. Keeper kicks the ball but shanks it out of play. I tell my AR to lower the flag because the white player never played the ball. After the game the AR tells me he raised the flag because he thought the white attacker and blue keeper might collide, so he raised the flag early. I informed him that player safety is important but we must follow the LOTG and there is no guidance in the LOTG that tells us to call a foul or infraction because of what we think might happen. I asked him if he would stop play if there was a ball in the middle of the field with two players from opposing teams running toward each other to get the ball. He said "no." My response was, "so, why would you raise the flag in a similar situation when an attacker in an offside position who has not played the ball but is running at the keeper who is moving toward the ball?" His answer, "I get it, I should leave the flag down until the offside attacker either interferes or plays the ball." Me, "Exactly." Lesson learned and now we will have one less referee misapplying the LOTG.