Red under the bed Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 Extract from the Nationwide Site **************************************************************** FA plan to stop offside abuse 13 Feb The Football Association are planning to take steps to stop teams abusing the new interpretation of the offside law. FIFA's latest advice about offside is that players can only be penalised if they are actively involved in play. This led to Bolton Wanderers deliberately stationing players in offside positions at set pieces, but far enough from play to be penalised, in order to try and confuse Leicester's defenders during Tuesday's Premiership game. The FA are now keen to ensure that this does not happen again and will inform referees that they should enforce the spirit, as well as the letter of the law. An FA spokesman told Sky Sports: "Bolton's plan was technically within the letter of the law but contrary to the spirit of the game. "Referees will now be told that if a player is seeking to circumvent the rules they should be cautioned for improper conduct." ******************************************************************** This should cause even more confusion with the players and officials. We really need a definitive statement to clarify the situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cidergeorge Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 That's complete carp. Surely FIFA should have seen the fact that players were going to take advantage of the situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tompo Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 All the fuss about offside must be strengthening the case for some sort of review of decisons during the game. Football must be one of the very few sports that does not have any sort of mechanism in place to resolve disputed decisions during the course of the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cidergeorge Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 Tompo you are right, but most players though probably are happy to accept the ref's decision as being final, whether goals are scored or not or should have been allowed or not is the only area of contention, however, when FIFA can't even interprate a rule of football in a sensible manner and in such a short sighted way it helps absolutely no-one. It should have been left well alone as really wasn't broke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cidergeorge Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 TomF is completely right. Hopefully today's further encroachment by FIFA will sort this out. We'll know by tomorrow anyway. I would also like to point out my excitement as having apparently made it into the Reserve Team, hmmmmmm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lockerman Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 I would completely get rid of the Off Side rule, now that would shake a few teams, And if not get rid of it completely, you should bring it in that you cannot be offside out side of the eighteen yard line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
City Rocker Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 That's complete carp. Surely FIFA should have seen the fact that players were going to take advantage of the situation. So now they are ruling that anyone deliberately in an offside position in the box, in order to confuse/disrupt the defence must be deemed to be interfering with play? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red under the bed Posted February 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 Confusing ? How are the officials supposed to make split decisions ? The wrong decision could cost a club millions ! As i said before, its time for a clear and definitive statement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cidergeorge Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 To tell you the truth I am unclear as to how they will be able to play the rule in the "spirit of the game" which apparently is the new ruling from FIFA today, but when managers like Allerdyce come out and state that they actively wanted attackers offside to come back on side to confuse the Leicester's defence it surely confirms that the offside rule should never have been tampered with. The status quo was fine, everyone understood that as long as a player was not interfering with play, then there was no offence. However, to turn this rule half way through a season and to make the changes as ambiguous as they are, is just plain silly and can ruin a game (Bolton / Leicester proved this). So now FIFA have gone back on what they have said stating that a player IS still offside if they are not playing within the spirit of the game, well what problems will this cause in the future? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Percy Parrot Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 Bolton's tactic of having 4-6 players stood 10 yards offside was brilliant, superb! Magic comedy. I think it was Big Sam making a point. But this is just a total p155 take now- I mean now it's a case of "what is distracting behaviour?". Would those Bolton players have been distracting? What it they'd been giving each other piggy backs? or mooning at the goalie!?! Fact is that it's 'distracting' if you have Henry stood 2 yards behind you, clearly offside, but you KNOW he's going to step back on and curl his run. Total farce! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Man In Black Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 I think I can sum up how confusing the current rules are by telling you that many of the players I officiate believe that you can't be offside if you are running away from the oppositions' goal, since that is obviously not interfering... Personally, I say get shod of it. It's impossible to be consistent when the rules are so ambiguous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
England Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 Copy of a post I made on this on the football talk forum: - " My daft suggestion - extend the 18 yard(? is it still yards?)line from one side to the other and you can only be offside in that area if there are not at least two of the opposition between you and the goal line when you receive it( that limits the area of play that has to be observed by the refs assistant and he only has to watch the receiver and not the player making the pass as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Horse With No Name Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 It was interesting that Bolton have been crucified for their actions in the week, because they did it from set peices, ie free kicks. But only last weekend, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Thierry Henry were being hailed as geniuses for doing exactly the same thing during open play. As the ball was being moved forward by the midfielders, Nistelrooy and Henry, in their respective games, were a couple of yards behind the last defender, and just as the through ball was about to be played, they moved onside, and both went on to score. Tactical genius. Is it therefore against the spirit of the game to do it at free kicks, yet not in open play? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
England Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 Using the rules is never really wrong but someone recently suggested that if "plays" are going to arranged then we will be going down the slippery slope of american football where the players are devoid of ideas and depend totally on stopping every few seconds to be told what to do. Bolton are using the rules and good luck to them, they are a breath of fresh air this season but players like Henry and Van Nistelrooy are individually brilliant and add to our enjoyment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestburyRed Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 What the hell? I notice on the main BCFC site that a statement has been issued to all clubs "clarifying" the new interpretation. "Clarifying" clearly meaning adding yet another amendment to the new ruling to confuse everyone even further. I hate the modern game! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Horse With No Name Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 I agree Westbury. I wish they would just leave the rules (laws??) alone. The only decent change they have made has got to be the backpass one. Can you imagine the uproar if they changed the rules of snooker so that the yellow was worth seven and the black, two? Or darts so you had to finish on a treble? No, the game is as exciting and unpredictable as ever and they should leave well alone. And another thing. When new rules are being introduced, or current ones amended, they nearly always try it out in the non leagues for a season, to test the water first. Why did this one slip through? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestburyRed Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 What annoys me the most is the fact they have brought it in seemingly mid-way through a season. Games have been ruined already because of it (Leicester - Bolton the clearest example, a massively important game for the two teams involved, especially Leicester) and the new clarification appears to acheive nothing. And, to make matters worse, players clever enough to truely exploit the ruling (Henry, Van Nistelroy) seem to be clear of any "lack of spirit" ruling or otherwise, because there is no way on earth officials will be able to pick up on the ways they hang around the back of defenders, despite the fact that clearly they will be interfering with play with regards to confusing the hell out of defenders who will need to adjust accordingly. I'm sure there will be problems in the Premiership but my real concern is Nationwide League and below, as the standard of officials is not as high and also if the rule does really fall apart it will be much harder for voices to be heard lower down the system as public/media pressure will not be as intensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fct Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 I detect the hand of Sepp "50 new ideas a day and 51 of them bad" Blatter in all this. He's constantly fiddling with the rules of the game much in the way an executive of a company does in order to a) relieve boredom and B) justify his existence in the company. Blatter has made some crass judgements and this offside ruling is one of the worst. Quite simply it should be left that if a player is in an offside position when the ball is played he is offside. Look at the Brentford game last saturday, Roberts was pulled up on the right when through by the linesman giving offside against someone else on the left side. Of course making that rule would mean Lee Peacock getting flagged offside double the occasions . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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