Thanks for the info. I was reading earlier about how the technology is available which would reduce the margin for error to a negligible amount. It would be good to get that cleared up.
New Offside Rule Proposed
- Thread starter esmufc07
- Start date
Might be the best way ultimately.
We could allow some leeway but players will instead of keeping themselves in line will be playing off the shoulder of the last defender to be within that allowance. All we do is move the line of contention forward.
Players have the option to stay a little bit further behind to make sure they're not a fraction offside as well under the current law. Where ever the line is drawn, players will probably be right on it and looking to exploit.
The rule already favours the attacker when you think about it. An attacker can play on and score if inline while a defender has to try and catch the attacker out by being ahead before the ball is played. A defender keeping himself inline is playing the attacker onside.
I'm worried too much allowance for the attacker will see even more defences playing deep and backtracking to make sure that attacker doesn't get away. Attacking players are often faster and have the momentum and direction in their favour, do we need to give them a foot or yard head start too, wenger rule could be two yards and be incredibly hard for fans to see someone a full stride ahead and assistant refs can only put a flag up for those rare cases of 3-5 yard offside.
Last edited:
I don't understand the drama with offsides. It's finally objective as it can get. VAR has removed any inaccuracies with the rule and now we're just fishing of things to complain about. If you are a milimeter offside, you are still offside, accept it!
You’re right an arm being offside would be ridiculous. Good thing arms can’t be offside then right?
Do you really not see the problem?
VAR hasn't removed inaccuracies. It's created confusion.
Players and fans dont know when goals are scored if they are going to count for minutes afterwards
Simplify it by only allowing offsides when a ball is passed from inside your own half. teams can still play a high-line tactically but once you cross the line(while maintaining possesion) its all systems go- a la score goals and not try to concede(lose) which has become a blight of modern football. Watching teams play in a compact 30x30 yard zone until the last 10 minutes was not the original plan of the rules-else the pitch would have been half the size.
I don't see a problem with it. The fan experience can be improved by keeping them more involved by adding screens/ref mics etc. If a goal is unfairly scored or ruled out, VAR changes that. The offside rule has existed forever and everyone is in agreement of what it should accomplish, VAR has removed the human error portion of it. Now if we have a problem with offside rule itself, I'd like to hear about that.
The way it works now is fine. There’s no way to eliminate mm offside, and we don’t need to. If you’re 1mm offside, then you’re offside, simple as. No opinions, no “up for interpretation” crap. And it’s the same rule for everyone, so nobody should be feeling hard done by it.
We just need pundits and commentators to shut up and stop making an issue of it. When they start complaining that somebody is just a hair offside they’re just winding people up about something something they should just accept.
We just need pundits and commentators to shut up and stop making an issue of it. When they start complaining that somebody is just a hair offside they’re just winding people up about something something they should just accept.
I'd personally go for:
1) The only body parts you can be off-side with are your head or either foot. No knees, chests, or anything else (to simplify things, and then..)
2) The "whole" of your foot or head needs to be off-side to be offside.
Yes yes, it's still going to cause a problem with people being millimetres off-side, but I think optically there is something much nicer about that.
The "whole" of the ball needs to cross the line to score a goal.
The "whole" of your foot needs to be in front of the feet(s) and heads of the opposition to be off-side.
1) The only body parts you can be off-side with are your head or either foot. No knees, chests, or anything else (to simplify things, and then..)
2) The "whole" of your foot or head needs to be off-side to be offside.
Yes yes, it's still going to cause a problem with people being millimetres off-side, but I think optically there is something much nicer about that.
The "whole" of the ball needs to cross the line to score a goal.
The "whole" of your foot needs to be in front of the feet(s) and heads of the opposition to be off-side.
And that would solve this
Not off-side as part of his foot is behind the opposition player.
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
Not off-side as only the feet and head, counts for off-side. Plus the whole of them need to be off-side.
If any one or no footed people are playing football, they can have the slight advantage of being able to be slightly more off-side than their two footed counterparts. Unless their are using a prosphetic which somewhat replicates the function of a foot, in which case that is the new foot
I think the rule is nice.
Can't agree with this implementation as Giroud is what I would call very clearly offisde.And that would solve this
Not off-side as part of his foot is behind the opposition player.
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
Not off-side as only the feet and head, counts for off-side. Plus the whole of them need to be off-side.
Also for me your knee should also play you offside
By half a foot!
I hate rule changes but I think Wengers would be far better than this mess we have now AND importantly it may add an opportunity for more attacking entertainment.
Any rule change in my book must first look to improve the game in some way. That’s why I’d go for this over the poxy millimetre decisions that we’ve got now.
Any rule change in my book must first look to improve the game in some way. That’s why I’d go for this over the poxy millimetre decisions that we’ve got now.
Wengers proposal is basically just the clear daylight guideline brought back yes?
Yes but half a big foot. And while using VAR is very clear.
Wenger's rule change will stop teams playing a high line as it will benefit the attackers so much more.
I think the only change would be if their last limb is the only part inline then it’s offside.
Basically the majority of their body needs to be onside i.e. their leading leg/shoulder/knee can only be offside
Basically the majority of their body needs to be onside i.e. their leading leg/shoulder/knee can only be offside
Half a foot is a country mile in offside terms. Thats not just daylight but GMT
Don't see what the problem with offside is currently. Rule is perfect. If it's millimeters offside, it's still offside.
No, because you can't bring back something that never existed
I like this idea, as in going back to the true intent of the offside rule.
It will change the game a lot though and it'll be interesting to see how the managers would react to it. High defensive lines and offside traps will become a lot less effective.
It will change the game a lot though and it'll be interesting to see how the managers would react to it. High defensive lines and offside traps will become a lot less effective.
Wenger's proposed rule change wouldn't get rid of mm decisions. It would just move the part of the body they're judged from.
And when you talk about it "improving the game", you have to ask if killing the high-line would make the game better or worse. I suspect it would be the latter.
But when the off-side rule was first invented, no one was talking about "oh his shoulder is 3mm in front of the opponent therefore it's offside".
VAR has created a new off-side rule that didn't exist before. I agree with Skills
Right. But Wenger's rule won't change that. The decision will just switch from "is any part of the body he can score with offside, even marginally?" to "is any part of the body he can score with onside, even marginally?". It might give more of an advantage to attackers but nothing about the mm decisions will change.
Also, while nobody was talking about those mm decisions before VAR, they were still given by linesmen. As we can see from the amount of mm calls they still make that either get confirmed or rejected by VAR. It was just easier for people to dismiss it as them making a bad call when we weren't analysing it that closely.
I agree, that's why I like my version over Wengers.
My version being
That, I think, is the closest to the original rule of offside we are going to get with VAR
Original rule: in-line with the opponent is on-side. (judged by a linesman)
New rule: whole of the foot/head needs to be offside to be offside (judged by a camera)
Depends why you're looking for that change.
The plan to have a semi-automated offside system for VAR in place for the 2022 world cup, which is supposed to get rid of the delays and need to draw lines. So if the impetus for all these proposed changes is simply because people don't like the current VAR process, that will/should be irrelevant soon anyway.
If ye have a deeper issue with the way offside works then that's different. I think a lot of people are just reacting to the current VAR set-up though.
Yes but in theory it should be easier to make quick decisions, there will still be the rare time where its indistinguishable but the ability to see if a part of a player is overlapping another is easier than trying to decipher if a shoulder or toe is millimetres offside. There should be less incidents that are difficult to determine.
It should be easier to determine this way, I think that’s the crux of it.
Personally I don’t think high lines being lost is a major thing, I would always prefer a rule change to benefit the attacking/entertaining aspects of the game.
Our quick forwards would benefit a lot. Rashford would have a massive amount of his current offside calls permitted. Pep would be fecked
First off i never said it was a rule, secondly it was/is a suggestion/guideline that has been bandied around in football for a long time. So the idea has and does exist.
It's fictional nonsense that was invented out of pundits/forums.
Offside prior to 1990 required the attacked to be behind the 2nd last defender, and only post 1990 was it changed to be 'level' with the 2nd last. There has never been any rule that allows such a nonsensical "guideline".
Paint it as you wish, it's something that probably came out of Souness's mouth when VAR came in and got taken as gospel for some contrived reason.
I think it's a good idea.
Make the game more entertaining. More goals. Gives the advantage to the attacker which is how off side should work.
It would be a huge advantage to the attacker with high acceleration. And it will be the same problem as current.
Can it be possible to change to count the offside if front-most part of foot of attacker and last defender? rather than count the any part of body, it will be easier to measurement and less situation for nearly side by side of the foot.
Can it be possible to change to count the offside if front-most part of foot of attacker and last defender? rather than count the any part of body, it will be easier to measurement and less situation for nearly side by side of the foot.
My thoughts too. There will always be a point where a player tips from being onside to off so there will always been a mm rule.
Adjusting the rule so people can't be offside with their kneecap is good for the spirit of the game. But I wonder if it's worth it if we pay a heavy price on high defending.
Evert advantage is already with the attacker?
Do we hate defenders now?
I don't think there's a way to fix offside for as long as VAR is being used to review offsides. The additional accuracy has caused a clash between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law and there's no way to reconcile the two that I can see. You can set the rules in any way that you wish, the simple fact is that the superhuman accuracy of VAR means that decisions will continue to be made that clash with what has been an accepted part of the sport for the decades.
The Wenger rule solves nothing. All it does is flip the problem on its head. Now, instead of having players who would historically be seen as onside being called offisde by millimetres, the reverse would be true. Players who would historically be called offside are now onside by millimetres. The problem is the same, its in breach of the spirit of the rule.
Unfortunately VAR can't be undone now in my opinion, that genie's out of the bottle. We'll just have to get used to seeing offsides given/not given that seem horribly wrong until we all get used to it and forget about the way it used to be. Not a great solution, but there we go.
The Wenger rule solves nothing. All it does is flip the problem on its head. Now, instead of having players who would historically be seen as onside being called offisde by millimetres, the reverse would be true. Players who would historically be called offside are now onside by millimetres. The problem is the same, its in breach of the spirit of the rule.
Unfortunately VAR can't be undone now in my opinion, that genie's out of the bottle. We'll just have to get used to seeing offsides given/not given that seem horribly wrong until we all get used to it and forget about the way it used to be. Not a great solution, but there we go.
That's a bad idea. It would only make things harder for referees and you need to remember most referees don't even have access to VAR.
With this change the only big difference would be that less teams would play the off-side trap and prefer to just park the bus, therefore cancelling any potential gain for the attackers. Milimetric decisions would still exist, by the way.
Personally I would only address changes to this rule if the goal is to make it simpler and less prone to interpretation. A change in the rules wouldn't amount to more goals or to an advantage for attackers, since coaches will simply adapt their defensive strategies to take the new rules into account. I recommend this article on the subject:
https://thesefootballtimes.co/2016/06/05/exploring-what-the-offside-rule-means-to-football/
Personally I would only address changes to this rule if the goal is to make it simpler and less prone to interpretation. A change in the rules wouldn't amount to more goals or to an advantage for attackers, since coaches will simply adapt their defensive strategies to take the new rules into account. I recommend this article on the subject:
https://thesefootballtimes.co/2016/06/05/exploring-what-the-offside-rule-means-to-football/