An odd offside at the SCL Stadium

THE offside Law is the most difficult and misunderstood Law of football because it has so many parts. First, what is offside? An offside position is when a player in the opponents half is nearer to their goal line than the last two defending players.

One is normally the goalkeeper but not always if he has strayed off his goal line.

Offside only becomes an offence when the offside player plays the ball, or interferes with play or an opponent.

There are so many ways this can happen it would take another column to cover them all.

A young referee who I have been mentoring this season said to me that one club official told her that a player didn’t have to touch the ball or interfere to be given offside.

That is a very wrong old-fashioned view, which I told her to ignore.

What makes it difficult, is that the decision, is the player offside? has to be made, at the moment a team mate plays the ball and there can be a lot of distance between the two players.

For example a full back may kick the ball upfield from just outside his own penalty area, with the offside player inside the opponents half. That’s quite a span of vision for assistant referees.

I remember such an incident when Sian Massey-Ellis was the assistant referee.

She ran half the length of the pitch alongside the offside player, but not raising her flag until he played the ball.

She then indicated that the free kick was level with her.

Two team officials rushed down from the technical area to demand the free kick be taken from where the offside player was, when the ball was kicked.

The law, however, says it’s from where the offence occurs.

This brings me to the decision that baffled supporters and even confused many Reading and Bournemouth players.

A Reading defender played the ball upfield and a Reading forward scurried back from an offside position to play it inside the Reading half.

So very unusually, a free kick for offside, was awarded inside the offending team’s half.