A deliberate play does reset it

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• Read this

  Deliberate play is a judgement, not a count — 4 of 5 criteria marked

  IFAB publishes five criteria for distinguishing a deliberate play from a deflection or a save, but no pass mark, and deliberately so. Three of five does not settle it. The criteria are: The ball travelled from distance and the player had a clear view of it. The ball was not moving quickly. The direction of the ball was not unexpected. The player had time to coordinate their body movement — it was not instinctive stretching or jumping, or a movement achieving only limited contact or control. The ball was moving along the ground rather than through the air. This tool reports how many were marked and does not pretend the count is the answer.

  What to do: If the criteria are mostly unmet, the touch was probably a deflection or a save — which does NOT reset offside. Re-run with lastTouch set to opponent-deflection.

• Note

  Hands and arms never count for offside

  For every player including goalkeepers, only parts that could legally score are considered — head, body and feet — and the upper boundary of the arm is the bottom of the armpit. A shoulder in front can decide a call; an outstretched arm cannot.

• Note

  Level is onside

  The test is NEARER to the goal line than the ball and than the second-last opponent. A player exactly level with either is onside, which is why the tightest calls come down to which side of a line a toe was on.

• Read this

  The picture freezes when the ball is played, not when it is received

  Position is judged at the moment a team-mate plays or touches the ball. Where the attacker was when the ball ARRIVED is irrelevant, and running onto a ball from an onside position is exactly what the law permits.

• Read this

  An offside position is not an offence

  A player can stand in an offside position all afternoon without committing anything. The offence requires involvement in active play — interfering with play, interfering with an opponent, or gaining an advantage — at the moment the ball is played.

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  Applying the law is the easy half

  This computed a verdict from positions and judgements you supplied. In a real match the argument is almost never about the procedure — it is about where a shoulder was in the frame the ball was struck, and whether a touch was deliberate. Change those inputs and the answer changes with them.