He Must Be 'Offside'!

 

 

After the ridiculous decision at Anfield against Bournemouth and the marginal decision to disallow Lukaku's 'goal' against Man City, it has surely come to the point when the Offside Rule should be scrapped outside of the the six-yard box. The recent change has left players, referees and fans bemused, not to mention Brendan Rodgers.
Sky pundit Gary Neville, "They c**k about with the offside rule every year and they don't make it any better," he said on Sky Sports after Christian Benteke's controversial goal for Liverpool in Monday's 1-0 win over Bournemouth. He has even invented an interim 'rule' that a player can be 'on the edge of offside'.

If it were to be scrapped, it would lead to more open football, with defenders unable to push up and thus leaving a larger area in midfield for the more skillful players to express themselves.

Before we start to think back to jumpers for goalposts and 'goal-hanging' with a packet of crisps in one hand and arm raised in the other for a through ball waiting to be played... just think to the way it is right now. The pitch is consistently compressed into a 15 metre area either side of the half-way line.

The current situation does not favour the attacker and assistant referees struggle to know if a forward has managed to time his run to perfection as they have their eye on the ball as it is played.

Marginal decisions, I am sure, are not the reason the rule was introduced but more for stopping obvious 'goal hanging' by attackers who were not that quick. The game has moved on now and is much quicker with players a lot more athletic making this rule antiquated.

We have the facility at present, through the 4th official, to review a controversial incident immediately on screen and if an obvious mistake has been made to communicate that to the referee without a stoppage in play. Let the great unknown be exactly that. A quiet word from the fourth official in the ref's ear like in the 'Zidane' moment in the 2006 World Cup final is more than enough. If Frank Lampard's goal against Germany in 2010 had very quickly been cleared up no matter how, would the same fuss have been made than a blatant mistake?

We want to retain the ability for fans to question the accuracy of decisions in post match conversations, sometimes to cover up the inadequacies of their team's performance and put the blame squarely on the officials. That is all part of the experience of watching 'live' performances and not being told after several 'slow motion' replays that the correct decision was made.