Rules directly taken from: https://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/lawsandrules/laws/football-11-11/law-11—offside

Going trough the rules my opionions are (in the parenthesis)

  1. Offside offence

A player in an offside position at the moment the ball is played or touched* by a team-mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by:
interfering with play by playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate:
(I was pissed because this clearly was not a pass, but it was a touch from Summerville. Only reason why he got involved in the play, was the rebound off the defender. Had Summerville continued it is obvious by the body language that he would have let Summerville continue the run and not interfere. )

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:
( Same reasoning as above no intentions to touch the ball, but after the defender touched it. )

*‘Deliberate play’ is when a player has control of the ball with the possibility of:
passing the ball to a team-mate;
gaining possession of the ball; or
clearing the ball
If the pass (not a pass attempt), attempt to gain possession or clearance by the player in control of the ball is inaccurate or unsuccessful, this does not negate the fact that the player ‘deliberately played’ the ball. (Summerville’s touch did not instigate his action to play the ball, defenders tackle did)

The following criteria should be used, as appropriate, as indicators that a player was in control of the ball and, as a result, can be considered to have ‘deliberately played’ the ball:

The ball travelled from distance and the player had a clear view of it (yes had a clear view i agree)

The ball was not moving quickly (also true)

The direction of the ball was not unexpected (the direction was unexpected cuz of the tackle)

The player had time to coordinate their body movement, i.e. it was not a case of instinctive stretching or jumping, or a movement that achieved limited
contact/control (also agree)

A ball moving on the ground is easier to play than a ball in the air (was moving in the air bouncing when he made the touch)

There are according to the rules some criteria that justifies this decision. So when this rule is what it is now, i can understand its a fine balance here. But in my opinion the offside rule should go the same way as the handball rule.
In this specific situation VAR could have used all these criterias as same as before, to find an advantage or not. Instead of offside being this black and white as it is now.

My conclusion would have been (As a referee pov) there was no clear advantage gained of teammates touch, only after the tackle he instigated to play the ball. Player in offside position is showing clearly he has no intent to play the ball, but after the defenders tackle.
Otherwise he would have let Summerville continue his run without interfering defenders or the play itself. So after evaluating all the criterias, where some of them clearly outweighs on or the other, this is not offside.

Edit: (Was pointed out a criteria i totally forgot to account for in this post, is the distance between the defender and the attacker. As in this game the distance between Summerville and Milenkovic was really small, Milenkovic did not have the space and time to react, even if the tackle was on purpose. As the handball rule, if the distance is too short you cant really blame the defender. You cant have inhuman reflexes. A greyzone which is hard to get 100%)

Im not a referee just loved this sport for 25 years. And im so tired of this offside rule being this way and VAR being used in the way when it especially comes to offside. Not saying that this should excuse a 1 metre offside, but less than 1/2 body for sure i would line that to change.

Im not an West Ham fan, and tried to be a neutral as i could. Am i completely wrong on some or even all the points i am making, of course feel free to correct me snd tell me why.
I am not trying to portray me as being the almighty football god, that knows better than everybody else. Just want something to change, because this sport has become a shadow of what it once was in my opinion. And would love to hear what people think about this topic.

by SuspiciousMelkemann

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4 Comments

  1. Why do you think he’s not offside? Deliberate play from an opponent wouldn’t count because although he intentionally made a tackle on summerville at no point is the ball under Milenkovic control

  2. 4evrBlowingBubbles on

    We [west ham] have a multitude of issues, however, VAR has fucked us time and time again this season. This VAR check may very well have been the straw that broke the camels back that is our season. Hello championship.

  3. We have the technology. I reckon the “fact” of being offside should be determined by a line drawn from the top of the spine to the bottom of the spine, none of this nosehair or toenail crap.

  4. New to Football. But in American Football a review is most often used when the ref has made a call and or it is within the last two mins of a game.

    My question/issue is, who decided VAR should be reviewed? No flag went up, So why does this even get reviewed? Feels arbitrary.