Those three little words that can make or break your day and I’m not talking about I love you, something much, much worse, Video Assistant Referee. The problem most people have is that it is taking too much away from the game, you can’t celebrate goals now until the other team kicks off and you spend 5 minutes waiting for VAR to decide whether a player is or isn’t offside by the width of a pixel, definitely clear and obvious.
The offside rule is a simple one, if a player is beyond the last defender when the ball is kicked they are offside, or at least it used to be, there are variables now that have made it a bit more complicated. Being in an offside position no longer means you are offside, you have to be an active player gaining an advantage, now that could mean you were in the eye line of the goalkeeper, you “attempted” to play the ball or you actually made contact with the ball. The addition we have seen in the 20/21 season is that a linesman or woman will no longer flag for offside until the attacking chance is over, sometimes even when the attacking player is clearly metres beyond the defensive line, causing more uncertainty in the players and fans. Though this is for the good of VAR as it is impossible to give a player back their attacking chance if they were flagged offside and were indeed onside, however if you allow the play to go on and the player was offside then you can simply pull it back for a free kick.
When a goal is scored the Video Assistant Referee will check to see if there is any clear and obvious reason as to why the goal should not be awarded, when it comes to offside however that should be simple right? Wrong, the debate over where a players arm ends and body begins has caused many goals to be disallowed, a good example is a player making a run and pointing as to where they want the ball to be, by doing this they extend there arm passed the defenders boot for example and their shoulder deems them offside and therefore no goal. This also happens a lot with set pieces, a static defensive line and running offensive line can cause the shoulder of a player to be pushed further forward than a defenders boot. I do not personally see how either of those scenarios the attacking player has a distinct advantage of scoring a goal but FIFA’s VAR protocol doesn’t have any degree of tolerance so offside is offside.
There are a few things I believe would improve the way it works, the first being the determining factor of why a player is on or offside, currently it is any part of the head, body or feet (excluding hands and arms), this worked when it was being decided by the eye of a linesman or woman. When it comes down to the pixel line drawn across the pitch by VAR I think the hips of a player would be a better factor, it is the most central point of the body and it’s not a part of your body that can be affected by movement, either by pointing or running. The second is a different option to the hips and it is known as the daylight rule, if there is not a clear gap between the attacking player and defender then it is deemed on side, however if you can see a pixel between the two players than it would be deemed offside. The final one is how long it takes to come to a decision, I think there should be a 90 second rule, if a Video Assistant Referee can’t come to a decision in 1 minute and 30 seconds then it is not clear and obvious.
VAR is still young and constantly evolving, and I do believe it is necessary in the game but the offside rule is dated and needs to be brought in line with the new technology for it to work appropriately in the modern day game.
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