A midfielder looks up. He spots a runner. The ball is good, the runner is through on goal. He rounds the keeper, puts it away, and turns to celebrate. The flag goes up. He was offside.
Offside has been present in various forms 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.
The introduction of VAR has led to a change in how assistant referees (or linesmen) flag for offside. Before VAR, a linesman would flag the moment he saw an offside offence. Now, the officials wait for the phase of play to end (so when a shot is taken, the ball goes out, a player makes a tackle, etc.) before putting the flag up.
The assistant has to wait because he may be wrong. If a player goes on to score, and the assistant then puts up their flag, VAR will then step in and determine if the official was correct or not. But this creates a phase of play which the players have to treat as if it matters - even if the attacker is offside. Injuries happen in football, and these passages of play - which don’t need to happen at all - are putting players in danger.
A clear example of this happened this week where Wolves goalkeeper Rui Patricio was clattered by his own defender Conor Coady when trying to prevent Mo Salah from scoring. Little did he, Coady, or Salah know - but Salah was offside. The linesman thought Salah was offside. The linesman was correct in believing Salah was offside. But the flag didn’t go up until the ball hit the net (and Patricio had collided with Coady). Patricio had to be treated on the pitch for 15 minutes and was substituted under the new concussion protocols.
Patricio’s condition is thankfully not as serious as it appeared on the night. But he is not alone as both Ben Mee and Eric Bailly have experienced injuries after making last ditch challenges to players later deemed offside. Pundits, managers and players have been saying all season that late flags for offsides increases the risk of players getting injured. That the longer you wait to raise your flag, the higher the chance of a player picking up an unnecessary injury.
But football as a whole is incredibly sluggish when bringing about changes on grounds of player welfare. After years of debate around head injuries, it took a horrendous fractured skull for Wolves forward Raul Jimenez before the authorities introduced concussion substitutions. And despite repeated warnings, their inaction on late flags has led to a similar incident - though thankfully not a similar outcome - to another Wolves player.
Late flags only happen because of VAR - and it seems making the video ref work is considered a higher priority than player welfare. Late flags offer nothing but increased danger to players and frustration for supporters. It should not take another horrendous injury for the authorities to see sense and act.
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