Offside has been a part of football since the FA formally codified association football in 1863, and has been both a bugbear of fans and the subject of a decades-long pursuit of perfection from officials. The latest development in this pursuit - VAR - has led to even more fan frustration with officials miles away from the ground measuring the millimetres to work out if an attacker is on or off.
Two high profile incidents occurred in the latest round of Premier League fixtures. In Friday Night’s game between Fulham and Wolves, Wolves winger Daniel Podence was deemed offside in the build up to what appeared to be a perfectly good goal by Willian Jose.
Wolves went on to win the game regardless, but the decision to rule out the opener was described by BT Sport pundit Peter Crouch as “a get out of jail free card… None of the defenders are appealing [for the goal to be ruled out]” while the following day on Football Focus, Dion Dublin described the decision as “embarrassing.”
On Saturday, Liverpool's Diogo Jota was deemed offside after his shirt sleeve was deemed ever so slightly ahead of Aston Villa defender Ezri Konsa's knee, in the build up to Roberto Firmino's disallowed equaliser.
Liverpool also went on to win, but the frustration is that these disallowed goals would have been awarded when the Football League started in 1888. It would have been awarded every year football was played. It only stops being awarded once VAR was introduced at the top level in 2019.
To try and solve the problem, Arsene Wenger (in his new role as FIFA Chief of Football Development) has proposed a change in the offside rule.
Here is his explanation of the change he is pushing for:
"For the moment, you are offside if a part of your body that you can score with sits ahead of the body of a defender. I would like it to be that there is no offside so long as a [single] body part which a player can score with is in line with the defender. This could be too much of an advantage for an attacker, because that obliges the defenders to play higher up."
Wenger is right to have identified a problem with the current offside rule. A player is currently judged by the end of his shirt sleeves - as apparently it would be legal to score with that part of the body (though I am sceptical one would be allowed if this rule was ever tested). As a result, both players were deemed offside as their sleeves were deemed slightly further up the pitch than the defenders.
The problem comes in the implementation of Wenger's new rule. While both of the above goals would have stood, in other games and other incidents VAR would still be interfering to measure millimetres - only now to determine whether there is clear daylight between the attacker and defender, or whether any part of the body is level.
This problem would then be compounded as both attackers and defenders will play differently to accommodate the new rule. Attackers can start their runs earlier, or play half a yard further up the pitch, because the new rule allows them to. Defenders would have a choice of whether to drop deep, or adapt to play for offsides in a different way. The fundamental point, though, is this doesn't remove marginal calls. It just creates a different kind of marginal call.
Football needs to be careful as this would be another change to offside to try and accommodate the video ref. Offside flags already take place unnecessarily late - creating passages of plays (and injuries to players) when officials know an attacker is offside.
And while Wenger's change will change how both attackers and defenders balance play, the problem with VAR does not go away - it only moves the problem a yard or two up the pitch.
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