Question Number: 30786

Law 11 - Offside 9/19/2016

RE: Youth to adult, comp and rec.

Barry Stewart of Chilliwack, BC Canada asks...

This question is a follow up to question 30778

I feel for Nicholas, who seems FRUSTRATED that an AR has made offside calls that thwarted promising attacks.

If the AR in question took the test Joe McHugh posted, we might well find that Nicolas's concerns are justified.

My complaint with the test is that there's no sound track, so you can't hear the kick of the ball as you're watching the offside line. Without doing a freeze-frame look at each play, I got about 50% correct. I believe I'd do better on the field, with all the senses in play.

We wouldn't be happy with centre refs getting 50% of the fouls correct, or ARs getting 50% of throws-in or goal kick/corners correct. That's no better than flipping a coin.

Field hockey has made the switch to no offside calls and I'm on the record as being in favour of the same for soccer. I play and ref no-offside soccer several times a week and it's just fine¦ I'll say better, without the game-stifling calls for maybe/maybe not offside.

In the meantime, I'll dutifully do my best to call offside correctly in games that require it.

Your thoughts?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Barry
I believe that offside in the modern game as constituted is dated and needs changing. When players were not prepared to put in a shift and retreat to be part of play the lawmakers wanted to ensure that did not happen. Mooching was the term used.
In the modern game it rarely happens now with most attacker doubling up as defenders. Stopping the game because an attacker is a foot ahead of a defender and perhaps two yards from his team mate is not to use the old term *Off his Side* and the reason for the law.
I have thought about how the Law could be updated and I could envisage a situation where offside would only apply when the ball turns over and defenders push out towards the half way line to assist in their attack. The AR could follow those defenders out and any player left back in would be in an offside position. However once the defenders start retreating back in with ARs moving back in as well then offside should no longer apply. It would be simple to enforce. AR moves out with the last defender to a line where the last defender stops and then when the AR moves to his right to follow defenders that offside should not apply from that movement to the right by the AR onwards.

Anyway I dont see it changing any time soon so we go with what we have and make the best of it.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Barry,

If AR's were only getting 50% of offside calls correct, I would agree that fans could be forgiven for getting frustrated. Happily, the actual statistics are much better. At least in the Premier League, the ProZone statistical and measuring system used by the match officials organisation, the PGMOL, provided figures a couple of years ago, showing that the AR's were getting 99.3% of offside calls correct. I am not aware that these figures have changed much in the interim.