Offside is one of the laws of association football , codified in Law 11 of the Laws of the Game . The law states that a player is in an offside position if any of their body part except the hands and arms is in the opponents' half of the pitch and closer to the opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent [1] (not necessarily the goalkeeper). Being in an offside position is not an offence in itself; a player who was in an offside position at the moment the ball last touched, or was played by a team mate, must then become involved in active play in the opinion of the referee, in order for an offence to occur. When the offside offence occurs, the referee stops play and awards an
indirect free kick to the defending team from the place where the offending player became involved in active play.