Thetownend.com

as there aint alot of football talk(apart from dv's kick about strop) i want to have a moan about the offside rule as it is.
all this interfering bollocks is so open to debate that it wont ever be agreed on.so many situations have caused arguemtn regarding this rule.

i stood watching a local boys match recently that caused a row over a lad in an offside postion but not touching the ball.

i think they should go back to, if your offside then thats it.no interfering,coming back etc excusing it.
offside=offside end of.

then we can just argue over the lino's call or not.

I agree it gives players to much of a excuse to just walk back.

If thet are not interfering with play sub the fuckers.

I see what you;re saying, but you have to decide when its appropriate to give a free kick. The way you said it, a keeper could pass to his right back and then a striker would be given offside. That's why they have the interfering with play jargon.

I agree it needs sorting out though. I think any player who touches or moves towards the ball, or affects the movement or affects the movement of an opponent (ie they have to run round them, a keeper's view is obscured etc) should be given offside.

Erm, no he wouldn't, but I see your point.

However, it is a mess and I too think we should revert. As it stands not even the professional refs/linos are consistent with each other.

And as a defender I'd be pretty pissed off with no flag if I pushed up only for the ball not to go to the intended (offside) opponent but to the player running onto it right next to him.

It's all part of FIFAs drive to namby pamby tappy tappy football. No tackles, give the benefit of doubt to the attacker, etc, etc. Yes a high scoring game is more 'entertaining', but there is also a lot of skill involved in defending properly too.

It can be (although as Lumps mentioned in another thread you can have pretty good 0-0s), but surely the point of a goal is that there is no guarantee one will be scored...meaning it's value increases as a result of it's scarcity.  Therefore we should ensure that the goal remains a rare event or we'll endup with a crap sport like basketball.  On top of that a well timed tackle (I originally wrote that as tickle  :oops: ) is a thing of great beauty and means cloggers like me can still play.  

On the note of scarcity, someone should tell Blatter that the reason we like the World Cup and the Euros are that they only happen once every four years...familiarity breeds contempt.