Level Is Onside: The Law This Paper Is Named For
Law 11 is shorter than its reputation. What it actually says, how it is called in practice, and the moment that decides position.
Offside is the law everyone argues about and few people have read. It runs to four pages in the current book, a quarter the length of the law on fouls. Strip away the replays and the lines drawn on freeze-frames, and it asks two separate questions. Where was the player at one precise instant? And did they then take part in the play?
Position is not an offence
The law starts by saying it is not an offence to be in an offside position. A player is in one when two things are true. Some part of the head, body or feet is in the opponents’ half, and the halfway line itself does not count. And some part of the head, body or feet is nearer the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent.
That gives three reference points, not one. An attacker level with or behind the ball when it is played cannot be offside, which is why a cut-back is safe. And the second-last opponent need not be an outfield player: if the goalkeeper has come out, a defender on the line can be the last.
Hands and arms don’t count, for any player, goalkeepers included. For this purpose the arm ends at a line level with the bottom of the armpit. Everything above it, the shoulder included, counts. That is why a shoulder can be offside and an upper arm cannot. The rule cuts both ways: a defender’s arm cannot play anyone onside either.
A player level with the second-last opponent, or with the last two, is onside. Level is onside.
The moment that decides position
Position is judged at one instant: the moment a team-mate plays or touches the ball. The law says to use the first point of contact, the moment boot meets ball. Since 2025/26 there is one exception: when a goalkeeper throws the ball, the moment is the release.
Where the attacker is when the ball arrives does not matter. The touch need not be a pass; a miskick or a ricochet off a team-mate counts. A touch by an opponent does not, and it never turns an onside attacker offside.
When it becomes an offence
Position is only half of it. A player who was in an offside position at that moment is penalised only if they then become involved in active play, in one of three ways:
- Interfering with play: playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate.
- Interfering with an opponent: stopping an opponent from playing, or being able to play, the ball by clearly blocking their line of vision; challenging them for the ball; clearly trying to play a nearby ball when that affects an opponent; or making an obvious action that clearly affects an opponent’s ability to play the ball. Standing near the goalkeeper is not enough. The block has to be clear, and it has to matter.
- Gaining an advantage: playing the ball, or interfering with an opponent, after it has rebounded or been deflected off a post, the crossbar, a match official or an opponent, or after an opponent has deliberately saved it.
Deliberate play, deflection, save
The law adds an exception that decides many close calls. If an opponent deliberately plays the ball, an attacker who then receives it is not treated as gaining an advantage, even from an offside position. A deliberate save is the exception to that exception.
Deliberate play means the defender had control of the ball, with the chance to pass it, win it or clear it. A bad pass or a failed clearance still counts. Referees ask whether the ball came from distance and the defender could see it, whether it was moving slowly, whether its path was predictable, whether the defender had time to set their body, and whether it was on the ground. An instinctive stretch, or a lunge that only grazes the ball, is a deflection, and the offside stands.
A save is narrower. It means stopping, or trying to stop, a ball that is going into or very close to the goal, with any part of the body except the hands and arms (the goalkeeper in their own area excepted). A save by a goalkeeper or an outfield player never resets offside. A defender who handles on the line has not made a save: that is a deliberate handball, which counts as deliberate play.
Where offside cannot happen
A player cannot be in an offside position unless some part of the head, body or feet is in the opponents’ half. The halfway line counts as their own half, and an arm over it does not count. But the test is where they were at the pass: drop back into your own half to collect the ball and you are still offside.
There is no offside offence if a player receives the ball directly from a goal kick, a throw-in or a corner kick. Directly is the key word. Once a team-mate touches the ball, offside is back, and the corner taker can be offside from the return pass. Free kicks and dropped balls get no exemption.
Off the field, fouls and blocks
A defender cannot step off the pitch to catch an attacker offside. A defender who leaves without permission counts as standing on the goal line or touchline until the next stoppage, or until the defending team has played the ball towards halfway and out of its penalty area. If they left deliberately, they are booked. An attacker may step off to show they are not involved; if they come back on and join in before that same point, they count as standing on the goal line.
Timing decides which offence counts. If an attacker in an offside position is fouled while running towards the ball, before playing it or challenging for it, the foul is penalised, and that can mean a penalty. If they are fouled after they have started to play or challenge, the offside came first and the defence gets an indirect free kick. An attacker who physically blocks a defender commits a foul under Law 12, and that is punished instead.
How it is called in practice
The assistant referee judges position and usually raises the flag when the attacker becomes involved. In a clear attack heading for goal they may hold the flag and let play run. The guidelines also allow an early flag when an attacker in an offside position is the only player who can reach the ball.
With VAR, offside is reviewable when it leads to a goal or a penalty. Position is treated as a fact, so it is checked on replay without the referee going to the monitor. Whether a player interfered with an opponent is a judgement, and that is where the referee may be sent to the screen and where “clear and obvious” matters most. Since 2026/27 the Laws name semi-automated offside technology, which tracks players’ bodies, finds the kick point and draws the lines. It decides position only, never interference. Competitions apply it differently: the Premier League, for one, has said it keeps the “thicker” lines it has used since 2021/22, a deliberate margin before a tight call is overturned.
What it costs
The sanction is an indirect free kick to the other side. It is taken where the player became involved, usually where they played the ball, not where they stood at the pass. That can be in their own half. Inside the defenders’ goal area, the kick can be taken from anywhere in that area.