This quote illustrates one of my bug bears in football.
It wasn't the referee's decision to give offside, but his assistant. It's always the assistant. I'm not sure I've ever seen a referee refuse to give a free-kick when an offside flag is raised, simply because he disagrees. A referee is rarely (possibly never) well-placed to decide whether a player is off-side or not.
Calling off-side is the primary purpose of the assistants.
It wasn't the referee's decision to give offside, but his assistant. It's always the assistant. I'm not sure I've ever seen a referee refuse to give a free-kick when an offside flag is raised, simply because he disagrees. A referee is rarely (possibly never) well-placed to decide whether a player is off-side or not.
Calling off-side is the primary purpose of the assistants.