# A deliberate play does reset it

A defender who deliberately plays the ball hands it over, and receiving it is not gaining an advantage. IFAB gives five criteria for judging that, with no pass mark.

**No offside offence** — No offside offence: an opponent deliberately played the ball.

Decided under IFAB Law 11 — Offside.

> Not an official ruling. This works through a published decision procedure from the inputs you supplied; it cannot see the play. In a real call the hard part is almost always judging the inputs — where a foot was at the exact frame, whether a touch was deliberate — rather than applying the rule. Match officials decide, and competition-specific variations and video review protocols are outside what this models.

## How it got there

| # | Step | Finding | Decisive |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Restart | Open play, so offside can apply. | no |
| 2 | Nearer the goal line than the ball? | Yes, by 10.00m (measured at the foot). | no |
| 3 | Nearer the goal line than the second-last opponent? | Yes, by 5.00m (measured at the foot). | no |
| 4 | Offside position | In an offside position. This is NOT an offence on its own — it is a position, and about half of what gets shouted at referees stops being an argument here. | no |
| 5 | Who played the ball last | An opponent deliberately played the ball, which resets the situation: receiving it is not gaining an advantage, so there is no offence. 4 of IFAB's 5 criteria for deliberate play were marked as met. | yes |

## Read before relaying this

### Deliberate play is a judgement, not a count — 4 of 5 criteria marked (caution)

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.

### Hands and arms never count for offside (info)

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.

### Level is onside (info)

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.

### The picture freezes when the ball is played, not when it is received (caution)

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.

### An offside position is not an offence (caution)

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.

### Applying the law is the easy half (caution)

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.

---

Canonical URL: https://sports-rules.gumballtools.com/offside/deliberate-play-resets-offside
JSON API: `GET https://sports-rules.gumballtools.com/api/v1/offside?sport=soccer&attacker=40&ball=30&secondLastDefender=35`
MCP endpoint: `https://sports-rules.gumballtools.com/api/mcp`