offside question
 

I am a basketball offical (and soccer dad) trying to make sure I understand the nuances of offside. My question - Player A1 has the ball in a legal position moving down the right side of the field. Only Team B's goalkeeper remains between him and the goal. The keeper closes down the angle so A1 makes a backwards pass to A2 on the left side who is behind A1 but ahead of Team B defenders. Is this an offside pass or legal since the pass is backwards? If it is legal what is the citation in the federation rule book. Thank you.

Legal because A2 is onside, i.e., not ahead of the ball at the moment it is played.

In 11-1-1, the first criteria an offside position is being nearer the goal line than the ball.

Legal, the pass went backwards, therefore he cannot be ahead of the ball.

If you really want to get into the nuances and HS rules, try
http://www.nfhs.org/cgi-bin/ultimate...00757;go=older

the direction of the pass is not important/relevant when making offside decisions. location, location, location. i called two offside violations last night in a hs match where the player was closer to the opponent's goalline than the ball and 2ld, both ran back to an onside position AFTER THE BALL WAS PLAYED by a teammate, to play the ball. one ran 10 yards back.
(ref nrev, i know you kow this, but misspoke.)

Kmet. Please follow this link. Run the animation you will then be more knowledgeable than about 95% of all spectators.
http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/lawsofthegame.html

Confusing at first because rare, but ok, the pass could be backward from an onside player but played by a player running backward from an offside position.
Most of use were thinking about "backward pass" implying the receiving player was "behind" the ball, i.e., farther from the goal.