At UF, we mock referees a lot. Far too often do we cajole, slander, insult and defame the hapless man in the middle for his misdeeds and miscalculations. Well, with our new, semi-regular feature THE WHISTLEBLOWER, we have enlisted the help of comment favorite Dustin, a trained, licensed match official, to help us walk a mile in their shoes.
For his maiden voyage on UF, he’s decided to tackle that most perplexing of rules.
In my quest to educate, inform, and generally be a pedantic, annoying jerk invading your lives gradually with every step, I thought I’d start at the top of the pile with the offside rule, easily the most confused, poorly-quoted law in the game. As such, I’ve noticed two situations which I’ll highlight here involving Law 11; boringly interestingly enough, both happened at Everton games.
I’ll start out with the one that happened recently on the final EPL weekend: Everton vs Portsmouth. Piquionne receives a great through ball from O’Hara and takes it all the way to the endline around Tim Howard. From there, he tries to slot a pass to the top of the box for Anthony Vanden Borre, but it ends up coming right back to him. He then passes it back out quickly to O’Hara who touches it across the box to Vanden Borre for a simple tap-in.
Wait; the flag is up, offside on the play is called, and as the Portsmouth players protest we cut away to the replay. Another angle shows both the Keeper and an Everton defender nearer to the goal line than Vanden Borre when O’Hara touched it to him, the commentator remarks “That’s just not offside is it?” Of course, he is right.
Here’s the photo if you need confirmation.
O'Hara (top of screen, next to #3) passes across the box for Vanden Borre (#18), who is clearly onside
(Note: the ball has just been played by O’Hara and is in-between the Everton #3′s legs at the point of this photo)
Why in the world would the Assistant Referee feel that Vanden Borre was offside? He’s in the perfect position to get it right, he’s a professional, he called the bulk of the game correctly and this particular decision looked like a simple call after he made it.
I think I see what happened, and although it hasn’t been confirmed I’ll put it out there because it’s the most plausible: what if Piquionne was offside earlier in the play when the ball came back to him when he tried to pass it to Vanden Borre? Here’s another cool photo.
Note Piquionne's Position at the top of the picture. Behind all 3 Everton players, including Tim Howard
In this picture, we can see that Piquionne is on the endline behind both the 2nd-to-last and the last defender (includes keeper). It’s obvious to everyone, so why did it take so long for the Assistant Referee to flag it, thus making everyone believe that Vanden Borre was the player being flagged for offside?
Right before the ball comes back to Piquionne (who is in an offside position) something happens that I can’t quite discern: does the ball hit his teammate, the defender, or both of them on its way back to the offside Piquionne? I can’t tell at all in real time even with the great quality of my LCD tv. The assistant probably couldn’t be sure either so what I’m suggesting is that he was using his headset — something refs get to use in the modern game — to ask the Referee who had touched the ball before it went back to Piquionne.
It would be a quick conversation, but still much slower than it would take for Portsmouth to get the ball in the back of the net, at which time the flag went up for Piquionne who was offside while still very much involved in active play.
It’s a weird situation and I’m not quite sure I’m right about it (I really can’t tell from any video or picture if that ball connected); however, the referee crew communicated and came to the conclusion that there was an infraction on this play.
I didn’t see an interview by the officials after this game, only Avram Grant lamenting the poor call on Vanden Borre (which, if true, would definitely be a terrible call). As outlined above, I think this situation is much more plausible.
What if the officials had come out and said what they were calling? Or if they had at least told Avram Grant the situation after the call, or after the game, which is what I’ve consistently done as a referee immediately following complex and weird situations such as this.
The next situation luckily shows Howard Webb doing just that after the Everton vs Stoke game the weekend before the Portsmouth game. I’ll make this one quicker.
Arteta takes the corner for Everton. It’s hit long and is headed down by Jagielka into the back of the net. Pretty simple, except the flag is up and the Everton players are looking around like he’s crazy, dumb, blind, or some combination of the three. Back to the photo gallery.
Jagielka (blue shirt furthest to the left), Anichebe (blue shirt wedged between GK and defender), Begovic (in green), and no goal
Not a great photo but we can see a white blob on Jagielka’s head; that’s the ball and it’s being played towards goal. There’s a blue blob though in front of Stoke GK Asmir Begovic; that’s Everton striker Victor Anichebe. From Jagielka’s header, it’s fairly clear that Anichebe is in an offside position because the ball isn’t coming directly from a corner kick (instead it’s coming from Jagielka’s head).
Despite the fact that Anichebe doesn’t play the ball, he successfully impedes Begovic with his presence and is therefore considered to be active in this play that resulted in a goal. The offside call is correct and the goal disallowed; furthermore, Howard Webb makes himself available for questions after the game, this incident comes up, and he answers it perfectly.
I was very pleased to see this situation handled in such a way by the media-savvy Webb (at least compared to other referees). Everton’s Assistant Manager, Steve Round, notes that Anichebe was in an offside position during this play but then makes a somewhat surprising statement to argue against the call.
Steve Round: “…but it’s straight from a corner, the corners come over he’s headed it straight in the net and we can’t understand why it was given.”
And now all of you who are now more informed than Everton’s Assistant Manager… go take his job!
Also, in case you’re not any more informed and didn’t understand a word of what I was talking about, please ask as many questions as you can (even if you think they might sound stupid) and I’ll answer them with pleasure.
I don’t get it
Needs more MSPaint.
As a player and fan the most confounding word in the rule is “active.” Subjective at best, I would argue most referee’s don’t even know how to apply it (no offense intended to the author). Decisions made around the word are the most common culprit for shenanigans in my various mens leagues, and requests for explanation are rarely satisfactory.
I think the ‘active’ player bit is confusing. In the Spurs/Arsenal game, the goal for Arsenal seemed offside to me. Bendtner was standing behind the Spurs defense and in front of Gomes, when the ball was played out wide to, I think, Walcott. The flag doesn’t go up, even though Bendtner is in an offside position, I assume because he was not yet ‘active’. But then Theo gets past the Spurs defense and squares the ball to Bendtner, who is still standing behind the defense and in front of the keeper, who taps it in.
Even though the pass from Theo to Bendtner wasn’t offsides as they were both in behind the defense, it seems like the earlier ball should have been called offsides, since Bendtner became ‘active’ in the play?
all that jacking off to lady caca is killing my vision.
why not just use beer cans and swizzle sticks like everyone else does to demonstrate plays?
and 1994 just called, online video is a reality nowadays.
every operating system has cheap/free (well, you always pay for the privilege to use macs but money is never a problem) video editing software. load the game, copy the scene you want and save the clip and then upload to youtube. 15mins without the upload time.
^^^ Clearly disrepecting the referee, who will make the determinations WITHOUT the use of technology!!!
well played, keith. very well played.
The offsides rules sucks and needs to be changed immedaitely. It was originally put in to get rid of forwards “cherry picking”. Now a days its gets called incorrectly or missed on goals that should and shouldnt be allowed. I say unless its a blatant offsides, then dont call it, keep the flow of tha game going and we will see more goals.
Dustin — Thanks. The headset stuff was interesting. I didn’t realize that those were utilized that often. Really, why not have a 5th ref in the booth with a headset as well?
@ Attic: hey, flag wasn’t up, so I felt free to cherry pick that one.
Lennon’s Eyebrow has a point about active play. In the US we don’t teach about the area of active play, we point out more specifically who is active in the play by them either playing the ball directly or impeding/distracting an opponent. In England there’s a big difference and I noticed that sometimes offside is called on a play who’s not pursuing the ball at all but because the defender thinks he might so he makes a play on the ball by heading it away or what have you.
Like Goalkeepers FIFA considers some US assistant referees some of the best in the world and I think it’s simply because of how they are trained.
Anyways I tried with this article, it’s not amazing but it’s my first try.
I respect this column.
Pretty interesting column….Do penalty shouts/dives next!
Cool story, bro!
Can you talk about the PIG standard for offside for a little bit (if it even exists)? I remember reading somewhere that the offside rule comes into play when someone Plays the ball, Interferes, or Gains an advantage. Is this still used to teach referees, or is this more of a colloquial thing?
Like the feature…excited for the next installment: what exactly is “intimidating the ref?” A guide that does not apply to Chelsea.
My biggest issues with the offside rule revolve around “active” play, particularly: being offside during the buildup, coming back onside and scoring/affecting the play (the Bendtner example), and you’re really active but we’ll say you’re not because…..no one really knows, that’s the problem.
That one particularly irks me and based on Dustin’s clarification, I prefer the English interpretation. If you being offside affects the decision making of the defender/goalie, then you’re active. I play goalie sometimes and lost a league semi-final last fall because a wildly offside player screened me, dodged the ball as it came at him and it squeaked underneath me because I got a late read and couldn’t get down to save and/or parry the ball. Per the ref, he wasn’t active because “he didn’t touch the ball.” That fact he screened me and had to dodge the ball did not matter. He was s**te anyway and didn’t like me because I speak Spanish, knew what the spanish-speaking players were saying and gave it back to them in Spanish. Because to curse me in spanish is totally fine, to give it back is a straight red, no warning. He wasn’t hired back this year.
What’s a rule?
Also, rhinos.
Dustin – but that’s part of the problem. How do you determine what impacts play? Use the egregious example of an offensive player that is clearly in an offside position, but realizing such takes a knee to render himself “inactive.” However, the defense doesn’t notice him take a knee, knows he’s still there and “reacts” in some fashion (i.e. heading a looped ball over the top out of bounds). What do you call?
My point is that even with the best intentions its sometimes impossible to know when a player is active or not. The rule is horribly written and just sets referees up for failure.
@Bergkamp — what’s the solution then? I get your example, but if the active/inactive is too confusing/hard to interpret, what’s the alternative? You’re ALWAYS offside if you’re behind the last two men unless you’re off the field of play (which I think is a bogus rule – back to the “you’re offside then but not now” idea)?
“My biggest issues with the offside rule revolve around “active” play, particularly: being offside during the buildup, coming back onside and scoring/affecting the play (the Bendtner example), and you’re really active but we’ll say you’re not because…..no one really knows, that’s the problem.”
When did this Bendtner play happen? I could look it up and get back to you on that.
“Dustin – but that’s part of the problem. How do you determine what impacts play? Use the egregious example of an offensive player that is clearly in an offside position, but realizing such takes a knee to render himself “inactive.” However, the defense doesn’t notice him take a knee, knows he’s still there and “reacts” in some fashion (i.e. heading a looped ball over the top out of bounds). What do you call?”
Well how do we decide which fouls to call? There’s the Laws of the Game but there’s also tons of instruction referees go through constantly and papers we read and feedback and game experience. I think I should make another post about offside in general but I’m not really sure how to explain it better, I suppose if I present video of the Bendtner situation and talk about that it could clear up some things. In general it is about playing the ball or participating in the play, or gaining an advantage by being in an offside position. It’s sometimes a bit of a judgement call but usually when it’s obvious it doesn’t go uncalled unless there’s an extreme error. Most of the time when I see bad offside calls it’s something human eyes aren’t too capable off a splitsecond call between off and on by a full speed player, not easy.
Whiz – I’m not suggesting I’ve thought of a solution that no one else has come up with. Offsides is tricky. The problem with the word “active” is it connotates intent, and it’s impossible for a referee to accurately judge intent all of the time.
I’d like to see the old offside rule brought back. If your offside when the ball is played, flag goes up. Most refs used a little common sense, like if a guy that took the a corner kick was offside, but way away from the action, it wouldn’t be called. Would clear up most of this confusion. It would make it a little harder to score and FIFA doesn’t want that.