An attacker passes the ball to a team-mate in an offside position and, immediately after that, is fouled by a defender (reckless tackle outside the penalty area). The team-mate waits for the ball, receives it a few seconds after the foul and then runs towards the opponents’ goal (one-on-one situation). What is the correct decision?

Question

Accepted Answer

The referee stops play, cautions (yellow card) the defender and awards a direct free kick to the attacking team as the foul has occurred before the offside offence. The referee could not allow play to continue because the attacking team could not benefit from the advantage in this situation as their team-mate was offside.