Where do you take a freekick from an offside decision?

I don’t think Dermot Gallagher is saying that. It’s not an offence to stand in an offside position - only if that player subsequently receives the ball. The free kick is from when the offside player touches the ball. The lino can only flag to say the player was in an offside position when the ball was kicked. I would think it’s the ref who then makes the decision where the free kick would be taken from.

 

I don’t, I was as surprised as you when he explained it. Perhaps it happens so rarely it doesn’t feel right when it does

 

I remember a day when explaining the offside rule to a non-football person was thought to be fiendishly difficult - it's almost fecking impossible now

 

If a player is running back to an offside position, and the ball accidentally hits him - the linesman flags and takes the ball from that position. I think. Which makes the above a nonsence .

I'm trying to make sense of this, because I'd like not to criticize a referee or their assistants when they are actually right.

 

Well our offside player never touched the ball as they cleared into our half and our player was still their half

 

I think the strong wind had a hand in this. We were kicking into it so you would normally expect the ball to at least clear the halfway line which was why (Cole was it) was standing in the opponent’s half when the pass was delivered. However he had to run forward into our half to get possession and the offside offence was completed at that point.

 

Right I found it. ‘When an offside offence occurs, the defending team is awarded an indirect free-kick. It is taken wherever the offside player plays the ball, interferes with play or an opponent or gains an advantage’ I’m not convinced that the offside player Cole played it though. It’s certainly changed from when I ref’d thougj

 

Just a sec though, isn’t it the case where a player in an offside position is not deemed offside if a defender gets a touch on the ball en route to him, in that case, if Cole indeed get back in his own half and touch it, then their defender cleared upfield in any case. Crazy

 

That’s interesting. Didn’t know that

 

What I don't understand is that I've seen freekicks for offside taken
A. Where it was kicked from (for example in the 'wrong' half
B. Where the offside player was when the ball was kicked
C. Where the offside player was when he bacem 'active' (ie after he had chased the ball down.
4. Nowhere because the ref reckons we can just play on if it goes through to the keeper (which isn't advantage)

I've heard referees and pundits say that all three are correct. They can't be. It can't be the case that refs can just decide which of 4 options they want to take depending on their mood at the time