Yankee_Jack
Key Player
This appeared on the BBC Football site today: VAR: Arsene Wenger suggests offside law could 'change a little bit'
Wenger is advocating a change to the offside rule, suggesting ... "amending the law so that "you will not be offside if any part of the body that can score a goal is in line with the last defender, even if other parts of the attacker's body are in front"."
Let's cut to chase. The offside law that many of us grew up with required two defenders to be between the attacking player and the goal line for an attacking player to not be offside. This was pretty straight forward, between means between, not along side. If you're alongside then there's no between. "Along side" or in-line is a knife edge ... in reality you are either definitely or biased one way or the other. Determining along side or in-line is impossible. All this "in-line" stuff is absolute nonsense.
Part of the FAW coaching license years ago was the passing of a referee's exam, by at least 80%. I have run the line on many occasions, if you're fit, and keep up with the play, it's not that difficult to determine "between". It really isn't, but keeping up with the play is critical to making the right decision.
If you are a linesman, and you are looking across the line of play, then you are looking at the attacking and defending players' body as a whole, not a nose, a toe, an elbow, etc. If a linesman says he can track all those little parts he's talking shit. If the play is on the other side of the field some 70 yards then it becomes even more ridiculous. At the point of decision everything is usually in motion and its the whole body perception that factors into the decision. If the linesman is not in-line with the play, then the best that can be done is a guess, which is where experience comes into play, and again it's based on the whole body perspective and not on the parts. But determining between versus in-line is easier to do.
We discussed this several months back and I remember positing that VAR should be looking at the attacking player's feet. His feet define where he is standing and not some extraneous body part, and for that matter the same for the critical defender, who may or not be anywhere close to the attacking player. But the critical distinction still becomes between versus in-line.
Wenger is advocating a change to the offside rule, suggesting ... "amending the law so that "you will not be offside if any part of the body that can score a goal is in line with the last defender, even if other parts of the attacker's body are in front"."
Let's cut to chase. The offside law that many of us grew up with required two defenders to be between the attacking player and the goal line for an attacking player to not be offside. This was pretty straight forward, between means between, not along side. If you're alongside then there's no between. "Along side" or in-line is a knife edge ... in reality you are either definitely or biased one way or the other. Determining along side or in-line is impossible. All this "in-line" stuff is absolute nonsense.
Part of the FAW coaching license years ago was the passing of a referee's exam, by at least 80%. I have run the line on many occasions, if you're fit, and keep up with the play, it's not that difficult to determine "between". It really isn't, but keeping up with the play is critical to making the right decision.
If you are a linesman, and you are looking across the line of play, then you are looking at the attacking and defending players' body as a whole, not a nose, a toe, an elbow, etc. If a linesman says he can track all those little parts he's talking shit. If the play is on the other side of the field some 70 yards then it becomes even more ridiculous. At the point of decision everything is usually in motion and its the whole body perception that factors into the decision. If the linesman is not in-line with the play, then the best that can be done is a guess, which is where experience comes into play, and again it's based on the whole body perspective and not on the parts. But determining between versus in-line is easier to do.
We discussed this several months back and I remember positing that VAR should be looking at the attacking player's feet. His feet define where he is standing and not some extraneous body part, and for that matter the same for the critical defender, who may or not be anywhere close to the attacking player. But the critical distinction still becomes between versus in-line.
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