Full Field or Mini - the great debate for players 12 and under.  Click link below for video

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1126121770?bctid=1434028187 

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A Solution To `Ludicrous` Offside?

The footballing bandwagon retail business too often does a roaring trade by virtue of people making an ill-informed judgement on a particular facet of football.

I recall a few years ago - because a couple of games had not been 3-3 - that various media outlets (though not Sky, strangely) determined that the game was getting boring. You probably don’t even remember that, but the same doom-mongers that decided that Abramovich’s millions would mean Chelsea would dominate football FOREVER thought that we would never ever see an entertaining game of football ever again. The same people probably think it’s the best league in the world again now.

Right now, though, I have seen another bandwagon go by. But this isn’t any bandwagon. It’s an alloy-wheeled, Porsche-made, super-deluxe king of bandwagons. It’s called the Offside Bandwagon. And it’s a beast.

It’s also one which I have decided to board. I’ll typically try to douse the flames of the spreading wildfire when panic sets in, but this time we have a real problem.

I have, in the past, told you of my thoughts on the offside law. My previous opinion was that the law was perfect. Absolutely flawless. The only problem with it was that the people administering the laws are not perfect beings, so it was not always applied correctly and accurately.

This was far from an attack on officials. The fact is that real-life football is not Pro-Evolution Soccer, so where a pre-programmed sprite might be able to work out offsides, mere humanoids are not able to be so precise. Mistakes would have to be made, and it wouldn’t have hurt people to understand that a little more. That said, I urged a review of the law.

Well, I got one, but not the one I want. Not the one anyone wants. Especially the officials.

It is now chaos. No-one can really explain the law to you. Cafes all over the land are being forced to replace their salt and pepper pots because when blokes are explaining decisions they had seen the previous day over their Sunday morning bacon butty, they are getting so confused they are hurling the cruets all over the place. FIFA should not take that as a condiment (sorry).

The biggest problem for me, as your humble correspondent, is that the written law is now at odds with the actions practised by officials. And it seems the officials are not getting it wrong.

There is no consternation from within the game - in official circles anyway - at certain decisions given where there seems to be controversy.

At this point I just want to address a couple of decisions this past weekend which I do not include in my summary. The Andy Johnson one for Everton was simply bizarre, and a major mistake by the assistant referee. Goals scored by Jermain Defoe and Eduardo da Silva were both offside, but very marginal ones for which I’d urge you to refrain from hammering the linesmen involved.

That’s not much consolation to Manchester City or Chelsea fans, admittedly, but those were minor human errors, and it’s very easy for the armchair fan to sit and criticise or for the pundit with a fancy machine to point it out. It’s slightly harder to be the man with the flag in your hand.

Back to the point in question, though, and the confusion surrounding what is a correct decision, as opposed to straightforward mistakes mentioned above.

Middlesbrough’s equaliser at St James’ Park stands out as this week’s example of a situation which is beginning to get out of control. Lee Dong Gook made an attempt to win the ball, missed, and it ended up with Robert Huth.

We have seen similar incidents in recent weeks, most notably David Dunn trying to get on the end of a cross whilst in an offside position, failing, only for Roque Santa Cruz to score.

The written law and logic would tell you that in both cases (and others that I don’t have time to mention) that the flag should have gone up.

However, it seems that professional officials are being instructed that the flag should NOT go up. We cannot have a go at the lino in this case, as much as we would like to, if that is what he is being told to do.

The situation is ludicrous. How that can be construed as not interfering with play bemuses me, and it seems to evoke the same reaction across the football spectrum. Often, I find myself in these pages lamenting the fact that managers, players and fans don’t bother to learn the evolving laws, but instead hide behind their lack of knowledge to deflect criticism of their side’s demise.

In this case, though, the problem is that I’m not absolutely sure all the officials are on board with the law, either.

Finding a solution is tricky. Don’t tell me the adage ‘if you are not interfering, you are not on the pitch’ because it is an idiotic, blinkered and frankly outdated notion. And don’t tell me we should make everything offside, because you’ll then have defenders simply running forwards to make every attacker offside. You’ll also get a rasping 30-yarder into the top corner ruled out because somebody is stood on the edge of the box, fractionally offside but not affecting the game at all.

I hate to say this, but we could learn something from rugby here, you know. Maybe look at a solution whereby if you find yourself beyond the second-last defender, the only way you cannot be offside is by, when the ball is played forward, raising your arms and retreating. Or by a judgement call if a player is down injured.

Therefore, if you doing something other than this, i.e. running forward and hoping to be part of the game at some point in the move, then you are offside. Yes it would have its flaws, and yes there would be slightly unfair instances, but at least we might all know where we are.

Including those who have to carry out the laws set down by each, ever-more confusing doctrine from Zurich.

Rob McNichol

(Reprinted courtesy of Football 365)

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Laws Of The Game 2007-08

IFAB Law Amendments for 2007-08

FIFA Offside Animation - This is a simple animation of Law 11

FIFA Offside Animation - Greater information and interactive-takes a few seconds to load

Field of Play - Interactive flash video on the Field of Play