Alec Considering I teach referees how to referee, I'm happy to oblige. It is not an offence to be in an offside position. In the situation you describe, assistant referees are instructed to 'wait and see' to find out which player plays the ball.
If the player in the offside position plays the ball, then the flag should be raised, play stopped and an indirect free kick awarded to the defending team. If the player who was not in an offside position plays the ball, then play should continue. Interfering with play means the player in the offside position actually playing or touching the ball which has been passed or touched by a team mate. The other definitions are firstly, interfering with an opponent which is preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by blocking their line of sight or making a gesture or movement intended to deceive or distract the opponent. This occurred most recently when an Everton player was in front of a goalkeeper blocking his line of sight following a corner and the goal scored was chalked off. Secondly there is gaining an advantage which is when the ball rebounds off a crossbar, post or opponent when the offending player was in an offside position when the ball was played on to the bar, post or opponent. We usually take an hour and use a dvd that took a few thousand pounds to explain that to newbies :-) As for Clough's quote, there's been a number of law changes since he was involved in football, most of them intended to make the game more attractive and safer to play. He'd have loved the vuvuzelas though ;-) Brian -----Original Message----- From: Alec Sent: 14/06/2010 10:09:22 Subject: [LU] Offside rule clarification Can someone who knows please clarify something for me. If a pass is played forward to a player (not in an offside position), but in the penalty box D, a player is moving forward with intent and is only slightly ahead of the the player receiving the pass, and IS in an offside position, is it offside? I am sure that the rule is about "interfering with play", but what does that actually mean? Wasn't it Clough who said "If he isn't interfering with play, what's he doing on the pitch?". Cheers Alec _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist and the hardest time in a sailor's day is to watch the sun as it sails away _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist and the hardest time in a sailor's day is to watch the sun as it sails away
