Can someone explain the offside rule to Jonathan Pearce

It annoys me to death when at the game and people watch the Linesman put the flag up only after the forward goes for the ball and whinge "god, how late was that flag Linesman" etc etc etc.

Makes me think, if the rule change on being active stays in place for 25 years or so, will these people finally understand it! (rulez)

 

most linesmen do leave it too late though

the striker makes a move towards the ball and he is active, there is no need to wait until he gets to it to start flagging, as soon as he goes in the direction he becomes active.

 

Well said, i said exactly the same to the missus soon as i saw it, gardner was behind the ball, so cant be offside, hang your head in shame Jonathan Pearce

 

I do the linesmans job for my sons u 12 side. It is more difficult than I ever expected with the offside decisions. As you can imagine the lads stray offside more often as they are not used to the situation. Some Dads tell me that you have to receive the ball to be offside from an offside position if you get what i mean.

 

Chelsea vs Sunderland - Anelkas first...

The officials didn't pick up on this. When Alex slid in an knocked the ball towards the goal, Nicolas Anelka was behind the goalkeeper and he got to the last touch on the ball, to help it on it's way across the line, into the net. He should've been flagged offside for this (ok, so it probably wouldn't have changed the scoreline, but still).

 

Referee's Point of View on this

i am a qualified ref but i do run the line in the county senior league. the reason most linesman leave the flag late is we are told to wait and see if something will develop before raising the flag ie the ball runs through to the keeper so there is no need to give a free kick and the game can just flow and play on.

in reference to when you are offside and interfering you do not have to recieve the ball to be offside, i do believe that this is a very subjective part of the game, because 2 linemen will never see things the same and thats when incinsitancies appear.

 

I have always thought that it would be useful if the officials had an alternative signal to indicate that they had seen an offence but were playing on. Much of the problem with late decisions is the perception by the crowd that the officials are inefficient.