04-03-2021, 22:56
(04-03-2021, 22:12)Salopbaggie Wrote: Offside is offside where 3 inches or 3 feet, we would have been screaming from the rafters if it had been given as a goal and our opposition had scored it. I do question though if a linesman can call that and be sure about it.
I'm sorry, but this doesn't wash with me. From the first codified offside rule in 1863 through to the 2005 clarification about which parts of the body are liable to be considered offside, the purpose of the laws have always concerned the *advantage* an attacker derives from his position. That's the *spirit* of the law; a man who's three feet offside is gaining a clear and obvious advantage over the defender, which he isn't with three inches. But sadly it's not the *letter* of the law, which is why we're in this mess: the men who drafted the rules didn't imagine that computers and laser beams would be used to enforce them to the most absurd degree imaginable, resulting in fewer goals all round.
So no, I wouldn't be screaming from the rafters if it went the other way. And I don't think you'd find any example of me ever doing so on here for a marginal call. Screaming at our players to defend the ball into the box better, perhaps, but as for the attacking player? He's positioned himself well (in that his body is in line with the defender's), he's taken the chance, good for him. I don't care where his toes were when the ball was played, because he can't realistically whip out a slide rule and measure them for himself, and it has no bearing on the outcome. Awful, awful use of technology.
"I would rather spend a holiday in Tuscany than in the Black Country, but if I were compelled to choose between living in West Bromwich or Florence, I should make straight for West Bromwich." - J.B. Priestley