Is The Offside Rule Now Obsolete?

One of the rules in football that has been the subject of argument and debate has been made all the more divisive since the introduction of VAR. The offside rule was introduced in 1863 by the then newly formed Football Association (FA), stating that a player is offside unless three players from the opposing team are in front of him. This rule was changed in 1925, reducing the number of opposing players required to be in front from 3 to 2 players. The need for it was partly because the sport then resembled forms of rugby, with similar tactics and players allowed to use their hands to control the ball in some circumstances. 'Offside' means unfair and it was originally introduced to prevent players from "goal-hanging"–staying near the opponent's goal and waiting for the ball to be passed to them directly. This was considered to be unsportsmanlike and made the game boring. In 135 years of history, it has only been changed twice but has needed clarification many times.

So what is the current situation?

You are offside when you are in the opponents' half and any part of your head, body or legs is closer to the opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent. One of those two opponents is almost always the goalkeeper, so usually if either the ball or one outfield opponent is not between you and the goal line, you will be offside. You are not offside if you are level with the second-last opponent (or both opponents). It is not an offence to simply be in an offside position, though - you can stand offside whenever you like without the whistle being blown. Being offside can become an offence for a number of different reasons, and this is where the confusion starts and controversy can arrive.

The first is when you receive and play the ball having been in an offside position when it is played to you by a team-mate. That is called interfering with play. Offside can also become an offence, however, when you interfere with an opponent. You can do this in four ways: 

by preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by obstructing his line of vision
by challenging an opponent for the ball
by clearly attempting to play the ball when this impacts an opponent
by making an obvious action which impacts an opponent's ability to play the ball

Finally, you are also offside if you have been standing in an offside position when a team-mate plays the ball and it rebounds or deflects off the post, crossbar or an opponent to you or is deliberately saved and rebounds to you. The problem is that certain aspects of the rule are not black and white but instead involve a degree of subjectivity. While there are few issues when an offside player directly interferes with play, what exactly constitutes interfering with an opponent is up to the referee to decide. 

Clear? No wonder fans and pundits alike struggle to fully understand the rule!
 

This rule came into play in an different era, when the game was not what it is today. Modern day players are far fitter and more athletic than they were then. The introduction of VAR has seen play being held up constantly and offside calls have now become even tighter with fans often unhappy when a goal is disallowed due to the finest of margins that previously would have gone unnoticed and they are unable to celebrate. Another contentious point is that in VAR matches, the assistant referees who decide on offsides are required to avoid raising the flag for an offside decision until the play proceeds to a natural conclusion, unless the offside is extremely obvious. This allows a team who might have been called for an offside offence to instead continue and score a goal to be checked by VAR. However, when play continues there is the chance of an injury that would not have occurred before the introduction of VAR. Sometimes, offside decisions have to be made whether a player who hasn't got the ball is interfering with play. That is a judgment and is open to human error and open to differences of opinion. Also in the case of offside, they are judging it to within a fraction of a centimeter and it's definitely not accurate enough to do that. This creates an illusion of precision but, according to the Premier League, the lines used to determine the position of the offside zone and the attacking player in question are both one pixel thick, and both lines are manually positioned by the VAR operators. As the broadcast cameras operate with 50 frames per second, the point of contact with the ball is one of those frames inside the 50-per-second. However, a professional soccer player can run more than a foot in 1/50th of a second, so two separate images taken within the same 1-50th-of-a-second frame could show a player onside but also offside. Not to mention when is the exact moment the ball leaves the foot of the attacking player.

In football, VAR has reduced spontaneity and introduced lengthy stoppages, slowing down the game and making it less enjoyable as a spectacle. In a survey of match going fans, 95% have said VAR made the experience of watching a game less enjoyable with 44% saying they would be less likely to attend a match in future as a result. Also, 94% of fans who watched on TV said it had a negative impact. Both sets of fans agreed that VAR's impact on the ability to celebrate a goal, and the time it took to resolve decisions were the most frustrating aspects of its use. Marco van Basten, in his role as technical director for Fifa from 2016 to 2018, has campaigned for the removal of the Offside rule. He noted that fans wanted more exciting football with fewer stoppages and delays. He argued that removing offside will simplify the game and make it more interesting and dynamic. Van Basten shares the view of others in pointing to field hockey, which dispensed with its offside law in its entirety in 1998. Far from ruining the game, it is widely held that it has invigorated it by rewarding attacking play and making the game more exciting and free-flowing.

In conclusion, 'Offside' was introduced in a different age and is not now fit for purpose. Its abolition would not have a negative affect on the game but would do the opposite, make the playing area bigger, lead to more attacking football and give back the fans a knowledge of what they were watching.