Referee positioning and offside

Some of you may remember the days when the referee would tell their ARs, “Offside is all yours. Don’t get involved in a PK decision.” Those days are over. There are times ARs are expected to be involved in a PK decision. There are times when the refeere is expected to be involved in an offside decision.

This is a situation from a recent game. White #10 kicked the ball. Then Black #6 stuck his foot out and made contact with the ball. This was not a deliberate play. You see an instinctive stretch. There was no control on the ball. The ball then goes to White #20 who was in an offside position when his teammate #10 kicked the ball. The expected decision is offside for gaining advantage. Errors happen, so that is not the topic of this teaching session.

A lesson for everyone is that the referee’s positioning likely affected the accuracy of this decision.

At this point, the referee’s positioning is very central. As a result, he is only seeing these two players. If hr wants to see players in the middle of the field, he would have to turn his head, losing sight of these two players with the ball. But what if he had a wider positioning?

This would allowed the referee to see the ball, two players by it, and what is to come.

At the kick point, you can see the referee is well focused on the ball. But he is not prepared for what is to come. Had he taken a wider positioning, he would have had a better view of the player who would make a non-deliberate play on the ball as he approached the ball. This point is highlighted also in this video.