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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

Offside!

23:38 / 30.06.05

what do people think about the new interpretation being payed by fifa regarding the offside rule in football? basically, it isn't called until the attackig team gains some advantage from the player being in that position.

i noticed our australian commentators had a bit of a problem with it at first, with a few comments such as "oh, and the assistant referee's flag was very late..."

the fact is, this new interpretation gives the advantage to both the flow of the game - a great thing if a law can do this! - and to the attacking team. the latter from the fact that the play is restarted further up the pitch than previously the case for the attacking team and it encourages the players to play the ball.

(once the second defender has touched the ball, game on again - the first defender to get to the ball is safe enough; if the position (offside?) of the attacker has given hir an advantage then that player is adjudged offside. so when the 'keeper picks up the through ball and rolls it to the back, the [previously] offside attacker can go in and tackle...)

any other thoughts?

06:49 / 02.07.05

There seems to be a whole heap of confussion amongst the pundits and commentators in the UK over this, so many times I've heard discussions between Motson and who ever (I really dislike Motson's commentary, by the way) which collapses into him saying 'well fifa need to sort this one out, as there seems to be a lot of confussion over this' - but I always put it down to him not getting it. I makes for interesting attacking football, but makes defending a hell of a lot more difficult. I think that England will suffer from it, as they seem to lack the brightness to exploit it, and play far too deep anyway, trying to play up on the last man... roll on 2006...

Goodness Gracious Meme

15:43 / 13.07.05

I don't think the change is law is in itself particularly confusing, but I do think that it will take referees and players time to adjust to the extra twist it puts on tight offside situations.

It will, if players can get used to it, favour teams who play a flowing, free-passing, quick-on-the-break game.

Which is where I agree with BtB about the England national tem suffering. However, I'm looking forward to seeing how Premiership teams like Arsenal and Chelsea work with it, as they have the potential to use it very effectively, and in Chelsea's case certainly, a defence that should be able to adapt quickly.

21:56 / 13.07.05

it's already a bugger for social football... played at lunch in a uni social comp and the ref has no idea, nor do many of the players. try to explain, they shrug and blow their whistle. but they are still in the dark ages here with many rules, so i shrug too and go back to my goals...

i think it will fundamentally change football and will not, contrary to btb's fears, harm england - they'll adapt as everyone will and gazelles like owen and his ilk will make hay. i think defences will play tactically different in future and the 'keeper will be brought more into play as a second sweeper, leaving holes above hir head for audacious chips from thirty and forty yards. rekkun it'll be fun!

02:44 / 14.07.05

This might be well intentioned, but I think any change in this rule might bring more problems than benefits. I mean, we are talking about what's probably the most controversial rule football has. It's easily the hardest to watch because the linesman has to have a lot of things in his mind, and, to make things worse, a mistake here can be quite decisive. This change adds complexity to something that has never been easy to apply. Maybe they should stop kidding around and start using TV cameras to help referees.