By Albatross
August 3 2005

When is a Rule Change not a Rule Change? When FIFA say it's a clarification would seem to be the answer. However the recent clarifications to Law 11, the Offside Law, have already casued some confusion and will no doubt be a matter of debate as we move into the new season. For the moment at least Pools Fans don't need to be too concerned as the changes only affect FIFA Competitions - all domestic competitions, and European ones for that matter, will see no changes. However they will come into force for World Cup Qualifiers and the like - and FIFA will no doubt be pressing all the National Associations to adopt this change before long. A recent trial of the new clarification took place at the FIFA YOuth Championship, and already there has been criticism: some Managers and Coaches have expressed the view that this will make officials look stupid and confuse players and fans alike.

What have FIFA actually said? Essentially the principle - that you need to have two opposition players between you and the goal when the ball is played - remains the same. What FIFA have done is to lay down stricter guidelines on when someone is interfering with play - however in doing so they are changing the point at which an offside decision is actually given and this is where the confusion may arise.

Until now, the usual way of defining interfering with play has involved deciding whether or not the player in question is actively involved with play, or is in the way of a defender or goalkeeper. So a forward moving back from an offside position is OK until he becomes an active player again and goes for the ball. Even that has sometimes caused difficulties, with the occasional Ref or Assistant having wildly conflicting ideas about what constitutes interference. Clarification should in theory be welcome.

Now though we have three definitions. "Interfering with play" is now tied down as actually touching the ball; "Interfering with an Opponent" is either obstructing or distracting a defender; while "Gaining an Advantage from being in an offside position" means a player that's in an offside position touching the ball after it hits the post, bar, or a defender.

In practice, this means that a player that is actually offside can chase down a ball, and the flag can only go up when he either touches the ball or (for example) tries to charge down a defender's clearance or stands in front of the keeper.

This isn't quite a goal-hanger's charter - but as a free kick can only be given when the ball is touched or an obstruction or distraction is made, when decisions are close in any case defenders will not know until an attacker reaches and touches the ball whether he was in fact offside. Similarly, the attacker may only know it for certain at that point too - imagine someone racing onto a long through-ball, lobbing the keeper to score, and only when he takes the shot will the flag go up....

Late flags are already one of the things that annoy fans, and now it looks like the match officials are effectively being told that they are only allowed to give that decision at the latest possible moment. For a clarification, that's going to bring about some disproportionately large changes. Teams playing an offside trap for example will be playing Russian Roulette to an even greater degree than before - they will not know for certain until a striker touches the ball whether they got it right, and meanwhile have to face the prospect of expending energy chasing back only for the offside to be finally given after a lung-bursting sprint into the box. There's the potential for a great new time-wasting tactic as well - a long ball pumped up to an offside player would previously have attracted an instant free kick, but will now only do so when the player either touches the ball or gets in the way of a defender. An offside attacker chasing a ball into a corner, well away from any defender, can just wait for the ball to go dead; on a heavy pitch or with a well-judged clearance, he can stand by it if it stays in play and force a defender to come and collect it.

To be perfectly honest, I feel sorry for the officials that are going to have to try and implement this strange interpretation of the law. Even giving the most straightforward of offside decisions is now going to take so much longer; and in a crowded box, trying to work out if a player was standing in an offside position when a cross comes in when the flag doesn't need to go up until he slots home a rebound several seconds later is bound to lead to some controversial decisions.

The "Clarification" doesn't even really address the problem in any case. Until now, officials have had to judge whether a player is affecting the game while offside; now they have to try and take into consideration lines of sight, levels of distraction of defenders, and other such imponderables. In most situations the old interpretation of the law seemed to work well enough and at least it was fairly easily understood; now we have the situation where a clarification seems to be making things more complicated, and Referees and their assistants could well take the flak.

At least we don't have to worry about this rule change in Domestic Football yet; but if FIFA don't back down, then the pressure will be on to adopt it worldwide sooner rather than later. I somehow don't see them saying they've made a mistake, so it could be that Pools fans will need to get used to this next year - and in the meantime, prepare for some interesting times in Internationals as players try and come to terms with the new way of doing things.