The Offside Trap

NEW LAW: A player in an offside position (as defined above) is only penalised if, at the moment the ball is touched or played by one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee, involved in active play or interfering with an opponent or gaining an advantage by being in that position

EXPLANATION: ‘Interfering with an opponent’ is preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball. For example, by clearly obstructing the goalkeeper’s line of vision or movements

CONTROVERSY NO. 1: Playing for Manchester United against Southampton two weeks ago, Ruud van Nistelrooy stood in an offside position when a freekick was played in, then moved back into an on-side position before scrambling the ball in from close range. Southampton boss Gordon Strachan says Ruud was interfering with play because he was moving towards the ball, and so was offside

CONTROVERSY NO. 2: When Bolton played Leicester earlier this week, they posted two players in an offside position when taking free-kicks. The strategy paid off when Leicester goalkeeper Ian Walker was clearly distracted on one occasion, allowing the ball to slip between his legs and over the goalline

WHAT THEY SAY

Gordon Strachan: You might as well as scrap offside now if you aren’t going to give that (van Nistelrooy’s goal) offside

Sam Allardyce (Manager, Bolton): FIFA have got it horribly wrong. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it apart from try to use it to my advantage. I don’t think it adds anything to the game whatsoever other than confusion

Graham Poll (Top English referee): It has made the job harder for both referees and assistant referees. We have to adopt a policy of wait, wait and see. I’m surprised something hasn’t been made of this before

Manuel Diaz Vega (Technical Director, Spanish referees’ committee): It’s based on applying the legal assumption of innocence to football. You are innocent until proven guilty in law and with this new ruling, the same is true in football

— Shamya Dasgupta