What an offside is in soccer, explained

As Ted Lasso said to Trent Crimm when the British journalist asked the American coach if he could explain the offside rule in the second episode of the Apple TV show: “It ain’t easy to explain, but you know when you see it.” Well, we’ll try to explain the offside rule better than Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s attempt to define obscenity, the phrase to which Lasso was referring.

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In fact, Law 11 of international soccer’s official rule book is pretty simple:

A player is in a legal position (not offside) when there are at least two players from the other team between her and the opposing goal line at the moment the ball is passed to her.

The two players could be a goalkeeper and a field player or two field players.

If there is only one defender (or none) between the attacker and the opposite goal at the moment of the pass, then the player is in an offside position.

One key thing to remember: The offside rule is based on where the attacking player is at the moment the ball is passed, not where she is when she receives the ball.

But there are exceptions, footnotes and sometimes you don’t know when you see it.

And why is that not offside?

Now it starts to get a bit more complicated, because for a player to be offside she has to meet some conditions. For instance, she has to be in her opponent’s half of the field, be in front of the ball when it is passed by a teammate and attempt to play the ball or interfere with the play.

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Let’s see how these look on a soccer pitch.

In a soccer game there are usually 22 players on the field, 11 for each team. But to explain this, we’ll display two players from each team, plus the assistant referee.

First thing: A player cannot be offside if she is in her own half of the field. So you might see a counterattack that seems offside, but it’s not.

A player can only be offside in the other team’s half.

If the player who receives the ball is behind the ball at the moment of the pass, she cannot be offside.

Only players who are in front of the ball when it is passed can be in an offside position.

And a player has to intend to go for the ball to earn an offside call; she can’t just be a bystander. To explain this, we’ll add another yellow team player.

If a player who is offside at the moment of the pass — the yellow team player in the lower right corner — gets out of the way rather than going toward the ball or interfering with an opponent, she is fine. Another player who wasn’t offside when the pass was made can play the ball legally.

If an offside offense occurs, the referee awards a free kick to the other team at the spot where the offside player was at the time the ball was played.

And there are some scenarios in which players cannot be called offside: a goal kick, a throw-in, a corner kick or if the player receives the ball from an opponent who deliberately plays the ball.

A matter of inches

In most cases when an offside is called, a player’s entire body is offside. But if it is close, it can come down to body parts. What if an attacker’s arm is closer to the goal line than a defender’s foot? Is that an offside? Let’s see.

Parts of the body graphic

The parts of the body that can be offside are the same that can touch the ball, so everything but the arms counts.

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So back to our question: No, if the attacker’s hand or arm is closer to the goal than the defender’s foot, there is no offside. But sometimes it can be very hard to tell, even in slow-motion replay.

Not offside graphic

In this case the line that marks the offside is the foot of the defender. At the moment of the pass, the hand of the attacker is her only body part ahead of the defender's foot. So it’s not an offside.

Offside graphic

But take a close look at this next play:

Do you see how the attacker's left foot is ahead of the defender’s feet? It’s not as easy to catch this offside. That’s why the referee has some help, from humans and machines.

But take a close look at this next play:

Do you see how the attacker's left foot is ahead of the defender’s feet? It’s not as easy to catch this offside. That’s why the referee has some help, from humans and machines.

But take a close look at this next play:

Do you see how the attacker's left foot is ahead of the defender’s feet? It’s not as easy to catch this offside. That’s why the referee has some help, from humans and machines.

The referees

The head referee is the one moving all around the field. Normally, it’s impossible for this ref to tell if a player was in an offside position. So help comes from two assistant referees who move along the sides of the field, one on each half. Assistant refs try to stay even with the second-to-last defender so they are in good position to see if anyone is offside.

Referees on a field graphic

Assistant referee

Head

referee

Assistant referee

Head

referee

Assistant referee

Head

referee

Assistant referee

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Assistant referees communicate with the head referee by moving their flags in different ways for a foul, a corner kick, a goal kick and, of course, an offside.

Referee's flags

The assistant referee indicates an offside by moving the flag in two steps.

Raising the flag…

And then lowering it depending on where

the offside player is:

On the near side

of the field

In the middle

of the field

On the farside

of the field

The assistant referee indicates an offside by moving the flag in two steps.

Raising the flag…

And then lowering it depending on where

the offside player is:

On the near side

of the field

In the middle

of the field

On the far side

of the field

The assistant referee indicates an offside by moving the flag in two steps.

Raising the flag…

And then lowering it depending on where

the offside player is:

On the near side

of the field

In the middle

of the field

On the far side

of the field

To help correct mistakes, FIFA, the sport’s international governing body, introduced video assistant referees (VAR) in the 2018 men’s World Cup after trial runs in some less prominent competitions. A VAR monitors video during each game from a control room in the stadium and alerts the on-field referee through his earpiece that a mistake may have been made. The referee may then either change a call, let the call stand or stop the game and look at the video replay. Offside, however, is reviewed only if there’s a goal.

[What to know about video review at the World Cup]

In addition, FIFA used for the first time in the previous men’s World Cup the semi-automated offside technology as part of its video review system. The new technology uses 12 cameras mounted beneath the stadium’s roof to track the ball and each player 50 times per second to help the referees. The ball also features a sensor that sends data to the video operation room 500 times per second and alerts the VAR if a player gets the ball in an offside position. The VAR will then manually check the call — with the help of an automatically generated offside line — before making a recommendation to the referee.

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So don’t worry if you don’t catch every offside. Even in a big event like the World Cup — with referees, dozens of cameras and multiple reviews — there still will be some doubts. Maybe obscenity actually is easier to know when you see it.

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Valentine Belue

Update: 2024-07-30

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