Offside in Soccer (Football) Rule in Under 2 Minutes

Many young players and parents often get confused with the offside rule in soccer. Here's a simple explanation in under two minutes. There are some basic rules to understand first. Only the team with possession of the ball can be offside. So a defending team cannot be called offside and offside can only occur on the attacking side of the field. So let's illustrate this. The red team has possession of the ball here and they are attacking from left to right. This side of the field is their defending half. No player from the red team can be called offside on this side of the line. He or she can only be called offside on this attacking side of the field. So what is offside then? Technically speaking, a player is in an offside position when an attacking player is nearer to the opponent's goal line than both the ball and the second to last opponent. So in this case, as the red team is on attack, the goalkeeper is the first opponent and this defender is the second. A real simple way to look at it is to draw an imaginary line across the field at the last defender and any player beyond that line is offside. This player is offside. This player is not. Now just being in an offside position is not an infraction. However, it is an infraction when the attacking player is in an offside position and is actively involved in the play. So if the ball is played to him now, the referee stops play and awards a free kick to the defending team for the position of the foul. There's one additional scenario of an offside infraction. If the ball gets behind the defender, the ball becomes the offside line and cannot be played forward to an attacking teammate. You must stay behind the ball. Finally, there are three exceptions when offside is not called. On a goal kick, a throw-in, and a corner kick. I hope this clarified what the offside rule is in soccer. Have fun and thanks for watching.