SunSport’s whistleblower Mark Halsey gives his view on the weekend’s biggest talking point…
FRANKLY the offside Law 11 is an ass.
It allows too much room for interpretation, it’s complicated and needs simplifying urgently.
I even woke up in the early hours of yesterday morning thinking about the different factors involved in the offside law.
Was it a penalty? Was it offside? What came first?
I stated in these pages yesterday that Harry Kane was offside in the build-up to referee Anthony Taylor pointing to the spot.
The assistant referee Gary Beswick missed Kane standing in an offside position from Christian Eriksen’s free-kick because he was not parallel with the incident.
Taylor was always going to award a penalty for a foul by Shkodran Mustafi on Kane because an offside offence had not been indicated to him.
But there is understandably enormous confusion because of the way the laws are written.
Law 11 indicates a player in an offside position at the moment a team-mate plays the ball is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by “clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent or making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball”.
Kane has the intention to challenge for the ball and all that came before the contact by Mustafi.
However, others have argued Taylor was correct to award the penalty even if Kane was in an offside position when the kick was taken, also citing Law 11 that is because it also says…
“A player in an offside position is moving towards the ball with the intention of playing the ball and is fouled before playing or attempting to play the ball, or challenging an opponent for the ball, the foul is penalised as it has occurred before the offside offence.”
There is further confusion when the next paragraph contradicts this.
“An offence is committed against a player in an offside position who is already playing or attempting to play the ball, or challenging an opponent for the ball, the offside offence is penalised as it has occurred before the foul challenge.”
For me, both of those paragraphs need to be taken out of Law 11. I have spoken to many ex-players and officials within the game and they all agree offside should have been given.
The Professional Game Match Officials Limited — headed by boss Mike Riley — and the Premier League Match Centre, fronted by Simon Morgan who is in charge of the league’s delegates, have both confirmed since the incident happened that offside should have been given.
As a side note, had Beswick raised his flag I have no doubts Taylor would have given offside.
Rather than the International Football Association Board discussing the handball law plus changes for next season at their annual meeting in Aberdeen this weekend, the issue of offside should have been top of the agenda.
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